chicagoblue

My wife and I have lived in Chicago for the past 22 months, but will be returning to the UK at the end of August. I have a question regarding any forms that we must complete before departing the US? My 'Living and working in America' book mentions about obtaining a sailing or departure permit before leaving. Can anybody give me more details about this form, and where I can obtain it?

Also, I had a quick question regarding the logistics of filing US tax returns once back in the UK. I believe that both my wife and I are owed a refund on all of our federal/state taxes (due to J1 visa tax treaty between UK and USA for stay of less than 2 years). However, given that we will be back in the UK at the end of the tax year, how can we file our returns? I presume we can do it online, though I imagine it will be pretty complicated (we got H&R Block to do it for the previous year). Are there any further documents we should complete/obtain before we leave to assist this process? Also, how will the IRS go about returning our cash (given that we will probably have to close our US bank account)? I imagine there must be lots of people who have gone through something similar. Any advice would be very much appreciated!

Thanks!

nethead

You might get more luck getting your questions answered if you x-post this in the 'Moving Back To the UK' forum.

penguinsix

The UK Yankees message board (American expats living in the UK) has a full section on how to deal with US taxes while in the UK. You might find some good info there and some contacts for help if you need it:

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/