Do I have to pay tax?

If I work for one year while abroad and pay tax to the host country, should I pay another tax on that earning?

• I lost my job in the US one year ago and I was literally starving here in the US. Despite all efforts to secure a job, I could not get any. I went to New Zealand where I got a job and worked for one year. I paid my tax in New Zealand where I worked. My questions: 1. Having returned to the USA, am I supposed to pay another tax on the same earning for which I have already paid tax in New Zealand? 2. With the earnings I was getting in New Zealand, I was able to pay my mortgage in the US without default, obviously the tax on my property in the US was being paid through my mortgage loan servicer to the USA. Therefore, I was paying my income tax in New Zealand and property tax in the US at the same time. How do I prepare my tax return for the IRS in the US since I earned no money from the US for the tax year? 3. The bank has sent me the tax document showing the tax paid on my property and this is about the only tax document. Is this enough as my tax return? Let the tax gurus in our midst advice me properly since I need the IRS form-1722 for my naturalization. Please help.

• Answer:

  The IRS form 1722 doesn't exist anymore. It's replacement doesn't apply because you DID have a filing requirement. Working in another country does not get you off the hook. (Besides the IRS can see you paid your mortgage and will want to know what you used to pay it.) See IRS publication 54 to see how to file with a foreign earned income exclusion using form 2555. You convert the income you did have to US dollars and put it on line 7 of the 1040.