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Do you also have to pay "thousands" of dollars to accountants? This particular bit seems to be an exaggeration, as I would imagine any tax software should be able to deal with foreign income. And with only federal income to report, this should be cheap too.

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Here's an example that explains the tax rules for Canadian Green Card holders who have Canadian tax free retirement savings accounts. It all seems equitable and simple until you start reading deeper and it becomes clear that as a US Green Card holder from Canada working in the US that you probably need regular services from a tax attorney or a very sharp CPA with experience advising Canadians working in the US to keep you out of trouble. You probably only need that for this issue when the rules change but they do change and it's not the only issue that you're going to need professional advice for. The cost of that specialty advice adds up fast. http://www.serbinski.com/working-in-usa/rrsp.shtml

> Do you also have to pay "thousands" of dollars to accountants?

No, I found a good guy who really knows what he's doing up in Vicenza. But between his fee, and a day off work to go see him and get all my US stuff in order... it does start to add up.

> I would imagine any tax software should be able

Maybe, but I doubt it does it nearly as well as a competent accountant, who, for instance, knows how to read an Italian tax filing, and knows the details of the US-Italy tax treaty.

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