Your first US tax return after moving back from the UK can go wrong when the arrival date is treated as a clean break. The return may still contain UK pay, a later bonus for UK work, UK tax already paid and an account that was closed after you landed. Put the return-year facts in one file before you let payroll forms or a year-end balance decide the answer.
This checklist is for a US citizen returning from the UK to live or work in the United States. It is about organising the federal return year, not a conclusion on UK split-year treatment, state domicile, a treaty claim or the tax result for a pension, trust, company or investment fund.
1. Start your US tax return with a dated move-year map
For US citizens, the federal return generally begins with worldwide income, not only income received after arrival. Make a timeline from 1 January to 31 December. Put on it your UK departure, US arrival, each work location, pay date, bonus or equity event, tax payment and account closure.
Keep the UK departure analysis beside that map. The UK tax year and the US calendar year are different, and UK split-year treatment is not an answer to a US reporting question. Read our UK-to-US split-year tax checklist if your departure was mid-year; it explains the UK residence record you may need before assuming post-move income is outside UK tax.
Use the free US tax filing guide once you know your filing status and whether you had foreign earned income, foreign accounts, a pension, a business interest or foreign tax paid. It helps make a forms-and-issues list; it does not determine US or UK residence, treaty treatment or a final filing obligation.
2. Reconcile UK income and tax from gross records
Do not build the return from the dollars that reached a US bank account. Collect UK payslips, P45 or P60 records, final payroll statements, bonus and equity documents, bank-interest and dividend statements, pension records, Self Assessment material and proof of UK tax paid or withheld. Record the gross amount, payment date, income type, currency and relevant work location for each material item.
The IRS requires amounts reported on a US return to be expressed in US dollars. Its currency guidance says taxpayers using the dollar as their functional currency generally translate foreign-currency items at the rate when they receive, pay or accrue them. Save the rate source and calculation beside each entry.
3. Test FEIE and the Foreign Tax Credit before claiming either
Returning to the United States does not automatically answer whether the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion applies to an earlier part of the year. The IRS requires a foreign tax home and a qualifying residence or physical-presence test. The physical-presence route generally requires at least 330 full days in foreign countries during a 12-month period, so travel dates remain important.
The Foreign Tax Credit is not a promise that every pound of UK tax will reduce US tax. IRS guidance limits the credit and does not allow a credit for foreign tax allocated to income excluded under the FEIE or housing exclusion. Separate earned, passive and other income, and keep the UK tax evidence tied to the item that produced it.
Run the Foreign Tax Credit calculator only after you have foreign earned income, passive income, other US income, UK tax by category and filing-status assumptions. It compares planning scenarios for FEIE and credit relief; it is not Form 1116, a source-of-income analysis or a treaty calculation. If the move year includes a large bonus, share award, UK pension, tax refund or a choice between paid and accrued tax, get cross-border advice before filing.
4. Keep foreign accounts separate from the income calculation
An income-tax return does not replace the foreign-account question. The IRS says a US person generally has an FBAR filing requirement when the aggregate value of reportable foreign financial accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time in the calendar year. The test is not per account and it is not based only on what remained open on 31 December.
Use the FBAR and FATCA filing checker after you have listed each non-US account, ownership or signature authority, country, currency and maximum value. It helps organise the aggregate-balance and Form 8938 questions; it does not decide whether a pension, trust, fund or company interest is reportable, and it does not submit an FBAR or return.
For the full account sequence, read FBAR after leaving the UK. Treat the account inventory and the income-and-credit working papers as two linked files, not one calculation.
5. Add the state return to the same move-year file
Federal filing facts do not settle state residence. A US lease, job, driving licence, voter registration, family move or retained connection can matter under the state’s own rules. Record the date and evidence for each connection rather than assuming the federal return establishes a state start date.
Our state-tax checklist for returning from the UK sets out the practical records to collect. Use it early if you began US employment or moved to a state during the year. A state question is separate from the federal return and may need state-specific advice.
When professional advice is worth arranging
Arrange US-UK tax advice before filing if you may have a dual-status or treaty-based position, a green-card residence question, a UK pension or ISA, pooled UK investments, a trust, company or share plan, foreign tax that was refunded, disputed or paid after year end, a material FEIE-and-credit comparison, or missed international forms. These are facts-and-documents questions, not boxes a general checklist can settle.
Guidance, not advice: ExpatCompass tools organise records and planning assumptions. They do not prepare a return, determine residence, classify an asset, decide a treaty claim or replace a qualified US-UK tax professional.
A clean return-to-US filing order
- Build a 1 January to 31 December move-year map of residence, travel, work, income and account events.
- Save gross UK income records, UK tax evidence and a consistent US-dollar conversion working for every material item.
- Keep the UK departure and split-year record separate, then give the relevant facts to your US preparer.
- Test FEIE eligibility for the earlier foreign period before comparing it with foreign-tax-credit relief.
- Inventory every non-US account using its maximum calendar-year value, then test FBAR and Form 8938 separately.
- Add US state start-date and connection evidence to the same file.
- Use the US tax calendar to place filing, payment and information-reporting dates in order; it is an organiser, not an extension or a filing service.
- Use the premium multi-year tax projection only where income, credits, asset sales or residence assumptions genuinely span several years. It creates a planning view, not a tax return or professional advice.
The useful outcome is a return file that shows what happened before and after the move, where each number came from and which questions still need professional judgement. That is safer than treating arrival in the United States as the point at which the UK part of the year disappeared.