Some gems of wisdom from IRS Publication 54, Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad:
-In general, the tax shown on your return should be paid by the due date of the return, without regard to any extension of time for filing the return. [Does this statement not make you feel like the IRS has started writing tax law in zen koans just to F with people?! It LITERALLY took me two months of meditation on syntax/phraseology to understand this. I would drift off to sleep at night being like "it's an extension... for filing a return... but it does not give me an extension... for filing the return... PLEASE ZEN MASTER SHOW ME THE WAY TO ENLIGHTENMENT."]
-To meet the bona fide residence test or the physical presence test, you must live in or be present in a foreign country. A foreign country usually [usually?!] is any territory under the sovereignty of a government other than that of the United States. [Soooo... whither Iraq?]
-The term "foreign country" includes the seabed and subsoil of those submarine areas adjacent to the territorial waters of a foreign country. [WHY IS THIS INCLUDED? If you are for some reason living in the seabed or subsoil of a foreign country, don't you probably have bigger fish to fry than whether or not you're tax exempt?!]
-Bona fide residence test - example: You could have your domicile in Cleveland, Ohio, and a bona fide residence in Edinburgh, Scotland, if you intend to return eventually to Cleveland. [But... WOULD anyone intend to return eventually to Cleveland? Over Edinburgh?! You're setting yourself up for an audit on that one, Mr. Liar-liar-pants-on-fire!]
Oh, I could go on all night. But maybe (maybe) you are starting to grow tired of tax law. I can't imagine why. I will say there's a certain pride in having cracked the code(ish), and now I'm (kind of almost halfway) done figuring out my dues to Uncle Sam.
And with that... GOODNIGHT!
