IRS Enrolled Agent · QuickBooks ProAdvisor · AFSP

US taxes for both sides of the border

Most firms do US taxes for Americans abroad. We also do them for the founder who opened a US company from overseas, and for people filing in the US for the first time. The cross-border and not-so-simple cases the software firms send away, we take on.

Describe your situation

1040 · 1040-NR · 1065 · 1120 · 1120-S · FBAR · 5471 · 5472 · 2555

Julia Buinaya and Alina Prykhodko

What we handle

Two tax professionals, one firm. You talk to Julia or Alina directly, not to a call center and not to a junior you have never met.

Describe your situation
Who this is for

Built for people who want their situation understood

The clients who pick us want someone who will take the time to understand their situation properly.

01

Foreign-owned US LLCs

Single-member LLCs where the owner paid formation costs, funded the account, or moved money through the company.

02

Zero-revenue founders

People who assume no customers means no filings, and may still have owner-to-company reporting to review.

03

Newly in the US

Your first American return, accounts left back home, and the residency rules that decide what you actually owe.

04

Americans abroad

Citizens and green card holders overseas who need two tax systems to work together rather than against each other.

05

Behind by years

The IRS is a bureaucracy looking for paperwork, not a SWAT team looking for you. We pull your official income history, file what is genuinely missing, and arrange a payment plan if anything is even owed.

06

An IRS letter arrived

Do not pay it yet. Most of these are automated and a fair number are simply wrong. It usually ends quietly, either with proof the notice was mistaken or a routine payment plan.

The mistake we see most

Most people arrive with the same four misunderstandings

None of them are careless. Each one is what the internet told them was true.

FBAR

The $10,000 line is not your year-end balance

It is the combined highest balance across all of your foreign accounts at any point in the year, even for a single day. Money that sat in a foreign account for two days on its way somewhere else still counts, and brokerage, investment and pension accounts count alongside ordinary bank accounts.

5472 + 1120

Zero revenue does not mean zero filings

The question that usually settles it is whether you paid any of the company's formation or operating costs personally. If you did, that can itself be a reportable transaction between you and the company, no matter how quiet the business was. Missing the filing is a $25,000 penalty in a year you may owe no tax at all.

1040-NR

Tax was withheld, so nothing is due, right?

Withholding is not a filing. Nonresidents file 1040-NR rather than the 1040 consumer software hands you, are generally taxed from the first dollar of US income, and do not get the standard deduction. Filing is usually how you either close the obligation or get money back.

2555 / 1116

The exclusion is not automatically the right answer

Where you already pay meaningful tax abroad, the foreign tax credit often leaves you better off, and revoking the exclusion later locks you out of it for five years. We compare both against your income, your foreign rate, your family situation, and your longer-term plans.

The people behind 2MC Taxes

Two tax professionals. One mission: make US taxes simple, clear, and stress-free for our clients.

Julia Buinaya

Julia Buinaya

Tax preparer · QuickBooks ProAdvisor

Julia prepares individual and business returns with a specialty in newcomer situations: first US returns, ITIN applications, and cross-border household income. She works the cases most preparers avoid, including foreign-owned US companies, entity classification changes, and dual-status years. She is also a QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor and Intuit Certified Bookkeeper, managing books for small businesses alongside their annual filings.

  • IRS Annual Filing Season Program participant
  • Intuit Certified Bookkeeper
  • QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor

1040 · 1040-NR · 1065 · 1120 · 1120-S · 5471 · 5472 · FBAR

Alina Prykhodko

Alina Prykhodko

IRS Enrolled Agent

Alina is an IRS Enrolled Agent, federally licensed and authorized to represent taxpayers before the IRS. Before moving to the US, she spent over a decade working in Ukrainian banking and corporate finance, giving her a practical understanding of cross-border tax.

  • IRS Enrolled Agent, unlimited representation rights
  • Master's in finance, Kharkiv Institute of Finance

5471 · 5472 · FBAR · 1120 · 1040-NR · 2555 · 1065

How it works

Calm, specific, and deadline-aware

This should not feel like a generic accounting brochure. It should feel like a first conversation with a careful tax preparer: identify the situation, map the transactions, then decide what actually needs to be filed.

01

Classify the situation

Ownership, entity type, tax year, residency, revenue, and any transactions between you and your company.

02

Rebuild the evidence

Bank statements, formation costs, owner contributions, invoices, and the documents nobody kept at the time.

03

Prepare the filing path

The form list, the deadline status, the extension position, and what genuinely needs professional review.

04

Keep next year clean

Close the books every month rather than at year-end, so next season is a filing rather than a reconstruction project.

What you read online

The advice we spend the most time undoing

What the internet tells you

  • Open a Wyoming or Delaware LLC and you will not pay taxes.
  • My accounts were small, so FBAR does not apply to me.
  • Tax was already withheld, so I do not need to file.
  • No customers and no income means nothing to report.

What is actually true

  • The state you register in does not decide what you owe, and a foreign-owned LLC reports regardless.
  • It is the combined peak across every foreign account, not one account and not December 31.
  • Withholding is not a filing, and nonresidents are generally taxed from the first dollar.
  • Money you personally put in or took out can be reportable on its own.
Guides

Plain-language answers to the questions our clients actually ask

Plain answers

Answers before you have to book a call

These are not conclusions about your case. They are the questions worth surfacing early, so you know whether a focused review is worth starting.

Can zero revenue still create a filing issue?
Yes. The issue can be tied to reportable transactions between you and the company, not only to customer revenue. If you funded the LLC, paid formation costs, or moved money through the account, those transactions may trigger a Form 5472 filing requirement even with no customers.
I have not filed in years. What actually happens?
We pull your official income history from the IRS, work out what genuinely should have been filed and why it was not, look for reasonable cause or other relief, and set up a payment plan if anything is owed at all. Stepping forward voluntarily is almost always better than waiting, and the fear is usually worse than the reality.
How do I know whether FBAR applies to me?
Add up the highest balance each of your foreign accounts reached at any point in the year, including brokerage, investment and pension accounts, and accounts you can access but do not own. If that combined figure crossed $10,000 even briefly, it is worth a conversation.
I do not have a Social Security number. Can you still file for me?
Yes, through an ITIN application on Form W-7, which is generally filed together with your return on paper. The application takes time to process, so the single biggest thing you can do is start early in the year rather than close to the deadline.
Why use you rather than tax software?
Software is built for straightforward American taxpayers and cannot represent you. An Enrolled Agent can act for you directly with the IRS in an audit, an appeal, or a dispute. Unlicensed preparers are legally barred from doing that.

Next step

Tell us your situation
in a few sentences

We will tell you which forms apply and what it costs. No jargon, no obligation. Being years behind is a normal conversation here, not a confession.

  • Julia or Alina reads it, not an assistant
  • Usually a reply within one business day
  • A fixed fee agreed up front, before any work starts

Please do not include your Social Security number, ITIN, or account numbers here. If we need identifying details, we will ask for them over a channel meant for it.