How I Saved $24,000 In Federal Income Taxes

** I waited until the refund money hit my account before posting this.

I moved to Mexico in the summer a couple of years ago. Which meant I didn’t qualify for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion Act (FEIE) in the first year.
I had to wait until I lived here for a full calendar year to file.
Typically I had never qualified because I didn’t spend enough days out of the country.
One fortunate aspect of covid meant I didn’t have to travel to the states as much and had the opportunity to qualify.
If you want to know how to get Residency in Mexico —> Click my Guide.

This post is a walkthrough of how I filed my taxes just to give you a rough draft of what it might look like.
My honest recommendation. Unless you have some extremely uncommon tax situation, you can likely just use TurboTax.

I have both W2 and self-employed income. Have a simply record-keeping system and have never had issues.

Turbo Tax Referral Link - Get up to 25% percent discount when you file.

The process was much easier than expected. Load up Turbo Tax and make sure you also click “Worked outside the U.S.”

On the follow-up page, make sure you start the FEIE section

Follow the instructions and let the system walk you through everything

The only part that requires work is when you are asked how many days you spent in the US.
I made multiple 2-3 day business trips while staying under the limit.
Each trip has to be added in, and the money you made during that visit is added back to your taxable income.
I kept the records of all my flights if they needed to be uploaded later, but they don’t.
The process is self-reported, but keep all your records in the event of an audit.
I also chose to deduct housing with The Foreign Housing Exclusion (FHE)

While the Income and Housing deductions equal about 17k. Once I added things like Interest on mortgages, business expenses, and 401k contributions. I essentially cross out a large percentage of my total tax bill.

I also chose to do my tax at the beginning of February and received my refund on March 1st

If you haven’t used Turbo Tax before
Turbo Tax Referral Link - Get up to 25% percent discount when you file.

I also recommend consulting with a tax professional just for additional knowledge.


If you have any questions - Feel free to leave a comment.
But remember - This is not financial advice, and I am not a financial advisor.