How do I catch up on US taxes from abroad, and what does it cost?

The Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures are the IRS's route back into compliance for US citizens and green-card holders living abroad who fell behind on returns or FBARs without meaning to. The IRS defines non-willful conduct as conduct due to negligence, inadvertence or mistake, or a good-faith misunderstanding of the law, and you certify it yourself.

The residency test for a citizen or green-card holder: in any one or more of the most recent three years whose return due date has passed, you had no US abode and were physically outside the United States for at least 330 full days.

It is closed to anyone whose returns are already under IRS civil examination, and to anyone under criminal investigation. Every return has to carry a valid taxpayer identification number.

Returns for the most recent three years whose due date, including any extension applied for, has passed: delinquent returns where none were filed, and Form 1040-X amended returns where one was filed but was wrong. FBARs for the most recent six years whose due date has passed. And Form 14653, the certification that you qualify and that the failure was non-willful.

You pay the tax those returns show, with the statutory interest on each late amount. The IRS says the returns go on paper, not electronically, with 'Streamlined Foreign Offshore' written in red at the top of the first page of each one.

A taxpayer who qualifies and follows the procedures is not subject to failure-to-file or failure-to-pay penalties, accuracy-related penalties, information return penalties or FBAR penalties. That is the point of it. Outside the procedures, the IRS lists a penalty of up to $10,000 for each FBAR missed through a non-willful failure.

7 of the 10 expat tax services in the comparison publish a price for a Streamlined package: Expatfile $699, MyExpatTaxes $875, Taxes for Expats $1,450, Expat Tax CPAs $1,475, Greenback $1,750, 1040 Abroad $1,800 and Bright!Tax $1,860. H&R Block, Expat CPA and Capital Tax publish none.

The packages do not all cover the same thing. Some include the current year's return as a fourth; some include help with Form 14653 and others charge extra for it; one raises its price above a stated income; FBARs can be capped by the number of accounts. The table gives each package's price; the comparison's product pages give what each one covers.