🎯 The business: U.S. tax returns for Americans who live abroad. Roughly nine million of them must file every year, most dread it, the forms are specialized (foreign earned income exclusion, foreign tax credits, FBAR, FATCA), and the local accountant in Lisbon or Singapore cannot help. It is a service exported entirely by email.
Expats, dual citizens, digital nomads and American teachers and oil workers overseas. A standard expat return bills $400 to $900; one with foreign businesses, rental property or several years of catch-up filing (the IRS streamlined procedure) bills $1,500 to $5,000. Clients return every year for life, and they refer the other Americans in their city.
| IRS PTIN; Enrolled Agent exams if you are not a CPA | $20 to $1,500 |
| Professional tax software with the foreign forms, one season | $1,500 to $3,000 |
| Errors and omissions insurance | $500 to $1,500 a year |
| LLC, engagement letter template, secure client portal | $500 |
| Website aimed at two or three expat cities, Wise and Stripe | $300 |
| All-in | ≈ $3,000 to $7,000 |
Learn the expat forms cold: 2555, 1116, 8938, the FBAR, and the streamlined procedure for people who have not filed in years. Pick two or three countries with large American communities (Mexico, the UK, Germany, Japan, the UAE) and learn their tax treaties. Post helpful answers in the expat groups for those cities. Offer a fixed-price menu; expats hate hourly surprises.
Two hundred returns a season at an average of $700 is $140,000, most of it between February and the June 15 expat deadline, with the October extension deadline as a second season. Catch-up filings are the premium work. One seasonal preparer under your review doubles the volume.
A PTIN to prepare returns for pay; an Enrolled Agent credential or CPA license to represent clients before the IRS, which expats often need. The IRS written information security plan requirement. Engagement letters for every client. You are not giving foreign tax advice, so say so in writing and partner with a local accountant in each country for that side.
A client in a time zone twelve hours away who sends documents at your midnight. A missed FBAR with penalties that make it your problem. Clients with undisclosed accounts who need a lawyer, not a preparer. The practices that last specialize by country, automate document collection, and refuse the clients whose problem is bigger than a return.