US Expat Tax Statistics (2026)

How many Americans live abroad?

The US government does not count its citizens abroad. The most recent official estimate comes from the Federal Voting Assistance Program, part of the Department of Defense.

• 3.3 million US citizens lived overseas in 2024, across 186 countries, according to the Federal Voting Assistance Program's 2024 Overseas Citizen Population Analysis.

  Source: Federal Voting Assistance Program, 2024 Report to Congress.

• About 2.2 million of those 3.3 million overseas citizens were of voting age in 2024, the Federal Voting Assistance Program estimates.

  Source: Federal Voting Assistance Program, 2024 Overseas Citizen Population Analysis.

• 11.0% of eligible overseas citizens voted in the 2024 general election, against about 76.1% of voting-age people in the United States, according to the Federal Voting Assistance Program.

  Source: Federal Voting Assistance Program, 2024 Overseas Citizen Population Analysis.

• Canada and the United Kingdom have the most voting-age US citizens, followed by Japan, Israel and France, in the Federal Voting Assistance Program's 2024 estimates.

  Source: Federal Voting Assistance Program, 2024 Report to Congress.

• No agency counts Americans abroad. The Federal Voting Assistance Program says there is no list of all US citizens living abroad, so every population figure is an estimate. Its 2022 study estimated 4.4 million; its 2024 study estimates 3.3 million and describes that as 15% more than in 2010, so the two figures should not be read as a fall in the number of Americans abroad.

  Source: Federal Voting Assistance Program, 2024 Report to Congress.

How many US expats file taxes?

The IRS studies returns with foreign earned income every five years. The latest study covers tax year 2021 and was published in February 2025.

• 437,655 US tax returns carried Form 2555 (foreign earned income) for tax year 2021, slightly less than 0.3% of the 160.8 million individual returns filed, according to IRS Statistics of Income.

  Source: IRS Statistics of Income, Individual Foreign-Earned Income and Foreign Tax Credit, 2021 (published February 2025).

• 9.3% fewer returns claimed the foreign earned income exclusion for 2021 than for 2016 (437,655 against 482,640), according to IRS Statistics of Income.

  Source: IRS Statistics of Income, Individual Foreign-Earned Income and Foreign Tax Credit, 2021 (published February 2025).

• $48.2 billion of foreign earned income was reported on Form 2555 for tax year 2021, and $28.5 billion of it was excluded from US tax under the foreign earned income exclusion, according to IRS Statistics of Income.

  Source: IRS Statistics of Income, Individual Foreign-Earned Income and Foreign Tax Credit, 2021 (published February 2025).

• 68.2% of taxpayers who claimed the foreign earned income or housing exclusions for 2021 owed no US income tax, according to IRS Statistics of Income.

  Source: IRS Statistics of Income, Individual Foreign-Earned Income and Foreign Tax Credit, 2021 (published February 2025).

• $99,315 was the average foreign salary on a 2021 return with Form 2555 and wages, according to IRS Statistics of Income.

  Source: IRS Statistics of Income, Individual Foreign-Earned Income and Foreign Tax Credit, 2021 (published February 2025).

• Taxpayers in the United Kingdom reported the most foreign earned income for 2021 (over $4.4 billion), ahead of China (over $2.9 billion) and Canada (just under $2.9 billion), according to IRS Statistics of Income.

  Source: IRS Statistics of Income, Individual Foreign-Earned Income and Foreign Tax Credit, 2021 (published February 2025).

• 34,884 returns from Canada carried Form 2555 for 2021, down 29.6% from 49,518 for 2016, according to IRS Statistics of Income.

  Source: IRS Statistics of Income, Individual Foreign-Earned Income and Foreign Tax Credit, 2021 (published February 2025).

• 13.8% of Form 2555 returns in the IRS's 2021 study were late returns for earlier tax years, up from 12.2% in its 2016 study.

  Source: IRS Statistics of Income, Individual Foreign-Earned Income and Foreign Tax Credit, 2021 (published February 2025).

• 10.8 million returns claimed a foreign tax credit for 2021, worth $29.5 billion in total, on $37.6 billion of foreign taxes paid or accrued, according to IRS Statistics of Income. The credit is also claimed by US residents with foreign income, so this is not a count of expats.

  Source: IRS Statistics of Income, Individual Foreign-Earned Income and Foreign Tax Credit, 2021 (published February 2025).

• 38.8% more returns claimed the foreign tax credit for 2021 than for 2016, according to IRS Statistics of Income.

  Source: IRS Statistics of Income, Individual Foreign-Earned Income and Foreign Tax Credit, 2021 (published February 2025).

Work out your own position with the FEIE calculator or the do I need to file check.

FBAR statistics

The FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) reports foreign financial accounts. It goes to FinCEN, not the IRS, and US residents with foreign accounts file it as well as expats.

• About 1.7 million FBARs were filed in fiscal year 2024, roughly 4,660 a day, according to FinCEN's Year in Review. The count was about 1.5 million in fiscal 2022 and 1.6 million in fiscal 2023.

  Source: FinCEN, Year in Review for fiscal year 2024 (published June 2025).

• 1,503,807 FBARs were filed in calendar year 2022, of which 1,434,362 (95%) came from individuals and 69,445 from entities, according to FinCEN.

  Source: FinCEN, Federal Register notice of August 10, 2023 (88 FR 54397).

• One hour is FinCEN's estimate of the time to complete one FBAR and keep its records (55 minutes of reporting, 5 of recordkeeping).

  Source: FinCEN, Federal Register notice of August 10, 2023 (88 FR 54397).

• $10,000 is the FBAR threshold: a US person files when their foreign financial accounts together exceed $10,000 at any time in the year. The FBAR is due April 15, with an automatic extension to October 15.

  Source: IRS, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR).

• $16,536 per report is the maximum civil penalty for a non-willful FBAR violation in 2026. For a willful violation it is the greater of $165,353 or 50% of the account balance.

  Source: 31 CFR 1010.821, penalty table in force for 2026.

See what a missed FBAR could cost with the FBAR penalty calculator.

FATCA and Form 8938 statistics

• $200,000 is the Form 8938 threshold for a single filer living abroad (foreign financial assets on the last day of the year, or $300,000 at any time). For a joint return it is $400,000, or $600,000 at any time.

  Source: IRS, Do I need to file Form 8938?.

• $50,000 is the Form 8938 threshold for a single filer living in the United States ($75,000 at any time), a quarter of the threshold for a filer abroad.

  Source: IRS, Do I need to file Form 8938?.

• 114 jurisdictions are on the US Treasury's list of FATCA intergovernmental agreements, under which foreign banks report accounts held by US taxpayers.

  Source: US Treasury, FATCA agreements by jurisdiction, read November 2026.

Expat tax limits and thresholds for 2026

• $132,900 is the maximum foreign earned income exclusion for tax year 2026, up from $130,000 for tax year 2025, according to the IRS.

  Source: IRS, Foreign earned income exclusion.

• $39,870 is the general limit on foreign housing expenses for 2026 (30% of the exclusion) and $21,264 is the base housing amount (16%), according to IRS Notice 2026-25. The IRS sets higher limits for listed high-cost locations.

  Source: IRS, Notice 2026-25, housing cost amounts for 2026.

• $66,000 of unpaid federal tax debt is the 2026 level at which the IRS can certify a taxpayer to the State Department for passport denial or revocation, up from $64,000 in 2025.

  Source: IRS, Revocation or denial of passport in cases of certain unpaid taxes.

• 31 countries have a Social Security totalization agreement with the United States, which stops double Social Security tax on the same earnings. Romania's, in force since September 1, 2026, is the newest.

  Source: Social Security Administration, US international Social Security agreements, read November 2026.

How many expats are behind on US taxes?

We found no official count of Americans abroad who have not filed. The IRS published in 2018 how many taxpayers had come forward through its two programmes; those are the figures below.

• About 65,000 taxpayers had used the IRS Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures to catch up by September 2018, according to the IRS.

  Source: IRS, news release on the end of the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program, September 2018.

• More than 56,000 taxpayers used the IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program between 2009 and 2018 and paid $11.1 billion in back taxes, interest and penalties, according to the IRS. Disclosures peaked at about 18,000 in 2011 and fell to 600 in 2017.

  Source: IRS, news release on the end of the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program, September 2018.

• 3 tax returns and 6 FBARs are what a Streamlined submission covers. Taxpayers who qualify for the foreign offshore version pay the tax and interest but no penalty; the domestic version carries a 5% penalty on the highest balance of the foreign assets.

  Source: IRS, Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures.

Find your route with the catch-up route finder.

How many Americans renounce their citizenship?

Each quarter the IRS publishes in the Federal Register the names of people who gave up US citizenship or long-term residency. We counted the names in every notice for 2024, 2025 and 2026.

• Zenith Financial Advisors counted 4,574 names in the IRS expatriation lists for the first three quarters of 2026, 16% more than in the same period of 2025 (3,935).
• The IRS lists for 2025 name 4,889 people who gave up US citizenship or long-term residency, against 4,819 for 2024, by Zenith Financial Advisors' count of the Federal Register notices.
• With one quarter still to be published, the 2026 lists already hold 94% as many names as all of 2025, by Zenith Financial Advisors' count.

• $450 is the State Department fee to renounce US citizenship since April 13, 2026, down from $2,350. The department received 910 public comments on the proposal.

  Source: US Department of State, final rule of March 13, 2026 (91 FR 12296).

The lists also name long-term green card holders who gave up residency, and a name can appear well after the event. Read them as a trend, not an exact count of renunciations. More on the tax side: renunciation and exit tax.

How much does US expat tax preparation cost? The 2026 Zenith Expat Tax Fee Index

We read the price lists of 7 US expat tax services in November 2026 and worked out the median of what they publish. 6 of the 7 publish a price for a federal expat return; the rest quote individually.

• The 2026 Zenith Expat Tax Fee Index found a median published fee of $613 for a professionally prepared US expat tax return with FBAR, based on the price lists of 4 services read in November 2026.
• In the 2026 Zenith Expat Tax Fee Index, the median published fee for a professionally prepared US expat return with FBAR ($613, 4 price lists) is 3.5 times the median for software you drive yourself ($174, 2 price lists).
• The 2026 Zenith Expat Tax Fee Index found a median published fee of $1,775 for a firm-prepared Streamlined catch-up package (3 returns and 6 FBARs), with a range of $1,450 to $2,397 across 4 services.
• The 2026 Zenith Expat Tax Fee Index found published fees for a professionally prepared federal expat return alone, before FBAR and other forms, ranging from $259 to $799, with a median of $500 across 5 services.

One software provider also publishes a Streamlining plan. It is a different kind of product, so it is not in the Streamlined basket.

Disclosure: Zenith Financial Advisors publishes this index and its own fees are in it; ours is the highest in the prepared-return basket. The sample is small, so read the medians as a description of these price lists, not of the whole market. The other services did not review this page and are not affiliated with us. Fees are starting prices from each service's own website, and your own fee can be higher; the services, the fee each one publishes and the links are on our comparison of expat tax services. Confirm current fees with each provider.

Methodology

• Government figures. Each one is copied from the publication named beside it, read in November 2026. We do not take figures from other firms' roundups. Where a source is an estimate or is several years old, the line says so.
• Expatriation counts. We took the text of every “Quarterly Publication of Individuals, Who Have Chosen To Expatriate” notice covering 2024 to the third quarter of 2026 from the Federal Register and counted one name per row, not counting lines that only continue a long name. A year is the four quarters the notices cover, not the dates they were printed.
• Zenith Expat Tax Fee Index. For each basket we add the published starting fee for the federal expat return (Forms 2555 and 1116) and one FBAR for up to five accounts, and take the median. A service joins a basket only if it publishes every fee in it; a fee that includes the FBAR counts as it stands. The Streamlined basket covers packages a firm prepares. No fee is estimated.
• Updates. The page is revised each year and when a source publishes a new edition. The address does not change.