TurboTax-Grade Self-Filing Software For Americans Abroad Who Hold US Investments And Must File In Both The US And Their Country Of Residence

saas venture scale •• multiple requests

Roughly 9 million Americans live overseas but fewer than 20% file in full US compliance, and the ones with brokerage accounts, stock options, or foreign funds are the most stuck: consumer expat-tax tools handle wage income and the FEIE/FTC basics but punt on the investment-side complexity (AMT from ISO exercises, Form 8801 credit carryforwards, PFIC reporting, state-tax-exempt interest) layered on top of a second, foreign return. Investment-literate expats say they would rather pay $1-2k a year for software than trust a CPA who quietly misses carryforwards. The opportunity is a guided self-filing product that treats US-investment complexity and the resident-country return as one connected workflow.

builder note

Don't start with the US 1040 the incumbents already do that adequately. The wedge is country pairs: pick US plus one country (Germany, UK, or France) and nail the treaty interaction and the investment carryforwards for that pair before adding more. The moat is correctness on the boring forms, not the UI.

landscape (4 existing solutions)

The expat-tax market is split between simple software that punts on investments and full-service CPA firms; nothing lets an investment-literate expat confidently self-file both the US and the resident-country return.

MyExpatTaxes Handles FEIE/FTC and offers PFIC (8621) and foreign-corporation (5471) filings as paid add-ons, but it produces only the US return; it does not generate or reconcile the resident country's return, and AMT/ISO/8801 carryforward handling is thin.

Expatfile Fast for straightforward expat wage returns, but explicitly steers filers with serious foreign-asset or investment complexity toward professionals.

Taxes for Expats / Bright!Tax These are CPA-prepared services, the opposite of self-filing, and the people expressing this demand specifically distrust CPAs for missing investment carryforwards.

TurboTax Handles US investments well but has no concept of foreign residency, FEIE, the Foreign Tax Credit, treaty positions, or a second-country filing.

sources (2)

hn https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44620258 "I would pay $1-2k a year for a service like that" 2025-10-22

hn https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45535565 "TurboTax-quality tax filing service for American expats with American investments who live abroad" 2025-10-09

expattax-softwarefintechcomplianceinvestments