Model living outside of the US, tax laws?

Question

I am a model currently living in France. I have been outside of the US for a long time, and my various agencies have always paid tax for whichever country I worked/lived in. The problem is that after tax/agency fees, there has been very little money left and I haven't paid taxes in the US since I left. I was wondering if there is a minimum that I must make before I am required to pay tax to the US, and how this works, anyone??? Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

You do not indicate if you are paid as an employee or as a contractor.

If you are paid as an employee, your filing requirement begins at $8750.

If you are paid as a contractor, your filing requirement begins at $400 of net earnings due to self-employment tax.

Answer 2

Assuming you are a US Citizen, you have to pay taxes to the US on all of your income.   If you would be considered self-employed under US law, and your gross income (which is then net of agency fees, but not of income taxes) is more than $433, you have to file a schedule SE and file a tax return unless covered by a relevant tax treaty.  As you didn't specify the other countries you may have modelled in, I haven't checked specifically the US-France tax treaty yet.

Whether or not you're considered self-employed, you have to file a return if your gross income is greater than the sum of the standard deduction and the value of one exemption (approximately $8500 US for 2007).  Form 2555 (exclusion of foreign earned income) can be filed to exempt up to a specified dollar amount ($85,700) of foreign earned income, provided you are a "bona fide" resident of some foreign country, or spend no more than 30 days in the US.during the year.  However, form 2555 can be filed only before the extended due date of the return (that means, only for 2007 and future years), unless it reduces your income to less than the amount specified above.

I believe you're allowed to use the foreign tax credit (form 1116) to reduce your US income tax by more-or-less the amount of foreign income tax paid, even for non-current years.  This is likely to reduce your US tax to $0.