Choose a US tax accountant in London on evidence you can check. Anyone paid to prepare a US return needs an IRS preparer tax identification number, but only enrolled agents, certified public accountants and attorneys can represent you before the IRS in all matters. Confirm the credential on irs.gov, ask who will deal with HMRC, and favour an adviser who prepares the US and UK returns from the same figures or works closely with whoever prepares the other one.
This post is for US citizens and green card holders in London, and elsewhere in the UK, who are hiring a preparer for the first time or replacing one. It expands the short checklist in our guide to US and UK tax returns for Americans in the UK: what each US credential allows, how to verify it, how a UK agent is authorised, why the two returns should be coordinated, which questions settle the scope of the work, and what to bring to a first meeting. The criteria apply to any firm, including ours.
What credentials should a US tax preparer in London hold?
At minimum, a preparer tax identification number, known as a PTIN, which the IRS requires of anyone paid to prepare all or substantially all of a federal return. Beyond that, the credential decides what the preparer can do for you after the return is filed, which matters most when the IRS writes.
The IRS recognises three credentials with unlimited representation rights. Enrolled agents are licensed by the IRS itself after passing a three-part examination covering individual and business returns, tax planning and representation. Certified public accountants are licensed by state boards of accountancy, and attorneys by state courts or their designees, such as the state bar. Any of the three can deal with audits, collection matters and appeals on your behalf.
Preparers without one of those credentials can still prepare returns for pay, but their rights stop there. Participants in the IRS Annual Filing Season Program have limited rights: they can represent only clients whose returns they prepared and signed, and only before certain IRS staff, not in appeals or collection. Other PTIN holders have no representation rights at all for returns filed after 2015. A credential does not prove cross-border experience, but it decides who answers the letter.
- Enrolled agent: licensed by the IRS, unlimited representation rights
- Certified public accountant: licensed by a US state board, unlimited representation rights
- Attorney: licensed by a US state court or bar, unlimited representation rights
- Annual Filing Season Program participant: limited rights for returns they prepared and signed
- Other PTIN holder: may prepare returns for pay but cannot represent
How can you check a preparer's credentials?
Search the IRS Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers with Credentials and Select Qualifications on irs.gov. It lists enrolled agents, CPAs, attorneys and Annual Filing Season Program participants who hold an active PTIN, showing name, city, state, ZIP code and credential. A CPA or attorney can also be checked with the licensing board or bar.
Treat the directory as a check, not a verdict. The IRS says it does not list every paid preparer, and eligible preparers may opt out. A preparer with no credential will not appear at all, and an adviser based in London may hold a US licence issued by a state where they once lived. Ask which credential is held, in which state, and in whose name. Then confirm it.
The IRS publishes practical tips for choosing a preparer, and they apply abroad as they do at home. The professional should sign the return and enter their PTIN on it. Representation is formalised on Form 2848 (opens the official IRS page in a new tab), which the IRS says can only name a person eligible to practise before it, and the conduct of those who practise is governed by Treasury Circular 230. Our IRS representation work runs under that authority.
- The preparer signs the return and enters a PTIN on it
- Fees are not set as a percentage of your refund
- Any refund is paid to you, not into the preparer's account
- You never sign a blank or incomplete return
- The preparer asks to see your records rather than accepting round figures
- The firm will still be reachable months or years after filing
Can the same adviser file your UK Self Assessment?
Yes, if they are set up to act as your agent with HMRC. GOV.UK guidance says that anyone paid to deal with HMRC about someone else's tax affairs must register as a tax adviser through an agent services account, a requirement HMRC is introducing in stages, and must then be authorised by each client.
For Self Assessment (opens the official GOV.UK page in a new tab), you register first and then authorise the agent, either through HMRC's online service or, where that cannot be used, on the paper form 64-8. Once authorised, the agent can file your returns, make claims within them and discuss earlier years with HMRC. HMRC is clear that you remain legally responsible for your own tax, so the return is still yours to read before it goes in by 31 January.
Check that the adviser can file the pages an American usually needs. Residence and treaty claims go on SA109, which HMRC's free online service does not support, so the return has to go through commercial software or on paper. Our UK Self Assessment service files those pages alongside the foreign pages. If a separate UK firm keeps the UK return, ask the US preparer how the two will share figures.
Why should the US and UK returns be coordinated?
Because each return relies on figures from the other. The US foreign tax credit needs the UK tax on each category of income, and the UK credit needs the US tax on US-source income as limited by the treaty. Two advisers working apart can each file a defensible return and still produce a combined result that is wrong.
The largest single choice on the US return is how UK tax is relieved. The foreign tax credit (opens the official IRS page in a new tab), claimed on Form 1116, often gives the better result in the UK because UK rates are generally higher than US rates, and unused credit carries back one year and forward ten. The foreign earned income exclusion on Form 2555 suits fewer people here, and Publication 54 (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) explains that revoking it bars a new election for five years without IRS consent. A preparer who starts from the exclusion as a default has not tested the alternative.
Take a US citizen employed in London who holds a stocks and shares ISA and a former home in the US that is now let. The UK return is mostly settled through PAYE, plus the US rent on the foreign pages. The US return reports the salary, the rent and the ISA income, which the UK ignores. The rent is taxed first by the US under the US-UK treaty (opens the official IRS page in a new tab), so the UK credit waits for the US figure. Our post on which return to prepare first sets out the order.
What should you ask about the scope of the work?
Ask which filings the engagement covers, by name. A US return for someone in the UK often carries account reports and information returns that are priced, prepared and filed separately, and a quote that mentions only Form 1040 may leave the rest to you without saying so.
The FBAR is the clearest case. It is filed with FinCEN, not the IRS, and is due 15 April, extended automatically to 15 October once the aggregate of your foreign accounts (opens the official FinCEN page in a new tab) exceeds $10,000. Form 8938 goes with the return when assets pass $200,000 at year end or $300,000 at any time for someone living abroad and not filing jointly, and the IRS comparison of the two (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) shows that one does not replace the other. UK funds held in an ISA or a general account are commonly passive foreign investment companies, each of which may need Form 8621 (opens the official IRS page in a new tab).
State returns are easy to overlook. Some states continue to treat a former resident as domiciled there after a move to London, and our multi-state tax filing work deals with that alongside the federal return. Ask too whether the adviser will tell you when a form falls outside what they prepare, and who would handle a letter from the IRS or HMRC.
- FBAR on FinCEN's own system, including accounts you can sign on but do not own
- Form 8938 and how your filing status changes its threshold
- PFIC analysis and Form 8621 for UK funds
- State returns for the year you left and any state-source income
- Information returns for a UK company, trust or gift from abroad
- Help with an IRS or HMRC letter after filing
What documents should you bring to a first meeting?
Bring last year's US and UK returns, a list of every account you hold or can sign on, and your UK pay records. Those three things let an adviser see your filing status, your accounts and the shape of your income, and they show quickly whether earlier years need attention before the current one.
Prior returns matter more than any other document. Foreign tax credit carryovers, PFIC elections and any exclusion choice made in an earlier year all carry forward, and a new adviser cannot pick them up without the schedules. If returns have not been filed, say so at the start. Our guide on catching up from the UK explains the routes, and an honest first conversation shapes the plan.
Our document checklist lists what each situation needs, and our individual tax returns service works from one set of records for both countries. For the rest of what an American in the UK files each year, return to the guide to US and UK tax returns for Americans in the UK.
General information, not advice. The right answer depends on your circumstances and the tax year concerned.
