2 month tax extension for U.S. citizens and resident aliens abroad

Do you live outside the U.S.?  Did you run short on time to file your U.S. federal taxes?

There may be hope.  The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows U.S. citizens and resident aliens living outside the U.S. and Puerto Rico and military on duty outside the U.S. and Puerto Rico to have an automatic 2-month extension to file and pay.  Married taxpayers who file jointly qualify for the extension if at least one of the spouses does.  Married taxpayers who file separately must qualify individually.  If you qualify, you don't even have to request an extension.  Just attach a written statement to your return explaining why you qualify for it.

How to send U.S. federal tax returns to the IRS from Canada

There are several choices when it comes to sending U.S. federal tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from abroad.  Three factors to consider are time, cost, and reliability.  Here are some thoughts about the various possibilities that are available.

By Internet

There is currently no way for nonresident aliens who file a 1040NR or 1040NR-EZ to send U.S. federal tax returns electronically.

Anyone wanting to file electronically must submit the returns with the e-file system of the IRS, which requires that the tax forms be prepared with Free File, Free File Fillable Forms, commercial tax software, or by a paid tax preparer.  While nonresident aliens cannot use any of these, U.S. citizens living abroad and resident aliens living abroad can use some of them, with some limitations.

Le Centre des Femmes de Montréal (Women's Centre of Montreal)

The Centre des Femmes de Montréal is a non-profit organization that offers support to women on a wide variety of issues.  The center fights against poverty by offering food and clothing assistance, offers classes and workshops, provides legal information, accompanies domestic abuse victims to court, runs a mother and child program, and helps native women find health and social services.  The Centre des Femmes also offers services geared toward new immigrants, including individual services, French language learning, and cultural integration through group activities, all of which are of interest to me since I recently became a permanent resident of Quebec.

Individual services for immigrants

New immigrants can be matched with a counselor at the Centre des Femmes to help with the integration process.  This service is sponsored by the Ministère de l'Immigration et des Communautés culturelles (MICC).  There is a questionnaire to fill out, and then a counselor contacts the immigrant to get started and to direct the immigrant to helpful resources.