[Bevdeforges]

If most of your income comes from salary (i.e. earned income from a job or, in most cases, a personal business), you should only have to file the last 3 years' back taxes. You should contact your local US Embassy or Consulate and ask if they have an IRS office. If they can't help you directly, they may be able to refer you to a VITA group in the area, which is a volunteer group set up to help people prepare their US income taxes.
Cheers,
Bev

 

[Bevdeforges]

tony....the 3 year rule quoted above does not apply to you. it applies to the time limit to file an amended return to seek a refund. and of course you must have originally filed a return before you can amend it. you must file an original return for any year you were required to do so (met the filing rquirements, etc.), whether it is 5 years ago or 20 years. there is no statute of limitations.

The 3 year rule I mentioned doesn't refer to amended taxes at all. It's a concession that the IRS has made to expats who "didn't realize they still had to file while living abroad" - and periodically it is spelled out in detail on the IRS website and/or local US consulate websites. For the moment, the best reference I can find is here: U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad though you may have to do a bit of digging to find information on filing back taxes.

The notion of filing the past 3 years applies if, thanks to the overseas earned income exclusion, you owe little or no taxes during those three years.
Cheers,
Bev

 

[Bevdeforges]

This is from the tax information booklet for 2008 put out by the Paris IRS office:

>>If you have not filed a U.S. income tax return for one or more years
and no money is due, you should file returns for the current year and
two prior years (i.e., 2008-2006).
However, if you have not filed a U.S. income tax return for one or
more years and money is due, you should file returns for the current
year and five prior years (i.e., 2008-2003). Instructions for getting prior
year forms can be found on page three of this booklet.<<

The three year back filing thing is a long-established concession extended to overseas taxpayers (certainly for at least the last 15 or 20 years).

It's based on the concept that if you "voluntarily" file, they are more than willing to forgive and forget. If they find you for failure to file (generally because you owe a significant amount), then all penalties apply because there is no statute of limitations on returns not filed. (And that's how the IRS officials put it at the tax meetings I've been to here in France.)
Cheers,
Bev