IRS streamlined filing: getting current without penalties.
If you have missed US filings while living abroad — for years, or forever — the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures are the IRS's route back: three years of returns, six years of FBARs, and no penalties, provided the failure was non-willful.
Figures relate to tax year 2025 (US) · 2025-26 (UK)
Built for people who simply didn't know
Most people in this position aren't dodging anything — they moved abroad, or were born abroad to an American parent, and nobody told them the filing obligation followed. The Streamlined programme exists exactly for that, and it wipes the failure-to-file, failure-to-pay and FBAR penalties in full.
The package is specific: three years of delinquent or amended returns, six years of FBARs, and a certification of non-willfulness on Form 14653 that has to be written carefully — it is a sworn statement, not a formality.
- Eligibility review before anything is filed
- Three years of federal returns, prepared or amended
- Six years of FBARs
- Form 14653 non-willfulness certification, drafted with you
Do it once, before the letter arrives
Streamlined is only available before the IRS contacts you. UK banks already report US-person accounts under FATCA, so waiting is a strategy with a deadline you don't control.
One fixed fee covers the entire package — every return, every FBAR, the certification and the submission — with one specialist on your file throughout.
What the process actually looks like
A scoping call establishes eligibility and the fee. Document gathering runs through our secure portal against a checklist built for your situation. We prepare the three returns and six FBARs, draft the Form 14653 narrative with you, and file the complete package.
Most engagements run six to ten weeks end to end, driven mainly by how quickly bank statements arrive. The most common outcome surprises people: with foreign tax credits applied, many Streamlined filers owe nothing at all.
- Six to ten weeks from scoping call to submission
- Secure portal, one tailored document checklist
- The 14653 narrative drafted with you, not for you
- Ongoing annual filing quoted before you commit
Primary sources
Official guidance from the IRS, FinCEN and GOV.UK. Thresholds and rates on those pages are updated annually — check the current tax year before relying on a figure.
Questions, Answered.
What clients ask about streamlined catch-up filing
How long does the process take?
The IRS does not acknowledge Streamlined submissions on a fixed timetable, and no news is normally good news rather than a problem.
The reconstruction of prior years is usually what governs the pace, particularly where old statements have to be recovered.
Is there a version for people living in the US?
Yes. The Domestic and Foreign procedures differ, and the domestic version carries a penalty on the highest aggregate account balance where the foreign one does not.
Which applies turns on your physical presence over the relevant years, not on citizenship.
What if I am not confident my failure was non-wilful?
Then Streamlined is the wrong route, and there are other disclosure paths designed for that situation.
This is worth taking advice on before filing anything, because using the wrong programme is materially worse than using none yet.
What does a Streamlined submission involve?
Three years of tax returns, six years of FBARs, and a signed certification explaining why the failure to file was not deliberate.
Where the IRS accepts it, the failure-to-file and FBAR penalties that would otherwise apply are waived.
Do I qualify?
The test is whether your failure to file was non-wilful - typically someone who simply did not know the obligation existed.
If there is history suggesting you knew and chose not to act, this is the wrong route, and using it anyway makes the position considerably worse. That judgement belongs before you submit, not after.
Will I owe a lot of tax?
Frequently very little. Once foreign tax credits are applied across the reconstructed years, the tax actually due is often small or nil.
It is the unfiled disclosure forms rather than the tax that create the real exposure.
What if HMRC filings are behind too?
We deal with both rather than fixing one side and leaving the other open for someone to find later.
Where the same history spans both authorities, the sequencing of the two disclosures matters.
Next Step.
Tell us what you hold — the scope and a fixed fee follow in writing.