The IRS relief procedures for certain former citizens (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) let someone who gave up US citizenship after 18 March 2010, and never filed as a citizen, file six years of returns with Form 8854 (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) and pay nothing. Net worth must be under $2 million, total tax for the six years must sit below a low ceiling the IRS sets, and the failures must have been non-wilful. The procedure is open, with no end date.
This post is for people in the UK who have already renounced or relinquished US citizenship, often accidental Americans, and who never filed a US return. Our guide for people behind on US taxes in the UK introduces the procedure. Here we set out each eligibility condition, what goes into the submission, how it differs from the streamlined procedures and from covered expatriate status, and what happens to someone who falls outside it.
What are the relief procedures for certain former citizens?
They are an IRS procedure for former US citizens who never filed US returns and whose tax at stake is small. A qualifying person files returns for the year they gave up citizenship and the five years before it. The IRS then collects no tax for those years, asserts no penalties, and does not treat them as a covered expatriate.
The IRS explains the background on the relief procedures page (opens the official IRS page in a new tab). Citizenship can be acquired by birth in the United States or through an American parent, and some citizens abroad did not know they were American or what that meant for tax. Once banks began reporting accounts under FATCA, many found out. Some renounced without ever filing, which normally leaves them unable to certify five years of compliance on Form 8854.
The IRS describes these procedures as open with no set termination date, and it has said it will announce any end in advance. The page was last updated in September 2026. No preclearance is needed and the IRS asks people not to request a placeholder. A submission is sent by post to a dedicated unit and is not automatically audited, although it can be selected for examination in the normal way.
Who qualifies for relief as a former US citizen?
Only an individual who meets every condition on the IRS list. The IRS states that the criteria must be strictly met, and the net worth test has no exceptions. Estates, trusts, companies and partnerships cannot use the procedure. Failing any single condition means the returns are processed in the ordinary way.
The filing history condition is narrower than it sounds. A person who once filed a Form 1040 as a US citizen or resident does not qualify. A person who filed a Form 1040-NR in the good-faith belief that they were not a citizen is not disqualified by that return. Someone who renounced years ago and has done nothing since can still apply, provided the loss of citizenship was after 18 March 2010.
The two money tests work on different figures. Net worth is measured worldwide, on the expatriation date and again on the date of the submission, against $2 million. The aggregate tax ceiling is a single total across all six years, worked out after deductions, exclusions and credits, including the foreign tax credit. Penalties, interest and any exit tax are left out, and so is tax already withheld.
- US citizenship relinquished after 18 March 2010
- No filing history as a US citizen or resident
- Average annual net income tax for the five prior years within the covered expatriate threshold
- Net worth below $2 million at expatriation and at submission
- Total tax for the expatriation year and the five years before it at or below the IRS ceiling
- All required returns, schedules and information returns filed for all six years
What goes into a former citizen relief submission?
Six years of returns, proof of the loss of citizenship, and identification. The year of expatriation needs a dual-status return with Form 8854 attached. The five earlier years each need a Form 1040 with every required information return. No payment is sent, because a qualifying person owes nothing under the procedure.
The dual-status return for the expatriation year combines a Form 1040-NR with a Form 1040 attached as a statement, reporting worldwide income up to the expatriation date. Information returns such as Form 8938 (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) go in where the thresholds are met. Our Form 8854 page explains the statement itself, and the Instructions for Form 8854 (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) set out the balance sheet used for net worth.
Each return is marked at the top with the name of the procedure, in red ink where possible, and the package goes to the IRS address given on the procedures page. FBARs are not a condition of eligibility, but anyone who had a filing duty should file them. The IRS says it will not assert FBAR penalties where they are filed before or with the submission.
- A copy of the Certificate of Loss of Nationality, approved, or the court order
- A valid passport, or a birth certificate with government-issued photo identification
- A dual-status return for the expatriation year, with Form 8854
- Form 1040 for each of the five earlier years, with all information returns
- No Social Security number: the IRS says to leave those fields blank
How does this relief differ from the streamlined procedures?
Streamlined is a catch-up route for people who are still US taxpayers. The former citizen relief is for people who have already left. Streamlined usually means paying the tax and interest due, while the relief collects nothing. The look-back periods differ, and so does the certification that goes with each.
The streamlined filing compliance procedures (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) ask for three years of returns and six years of FBARs, with a signed statement on Form 14653 explaining the non-wilful conduct. On the Foreign route there is no miscellaneous offshore penalty, but tax and interest for those years are paid with the submission. Our post on writing the Form 14653 certification covers that statement.
The former citizen relief asks for six years of income tax returns because those are the years Form 8854 looks at, and it has no Form 14653 narrative. Non-wilful conduct is still a condition. A US citizen who has not yet renounced cannot use it, and someone above the limits cannot use it at all. For them, our IRS streamlined filing service is the usual starting point, followed by expatriation if that is the aim.
Does qualifying stop you being a covered expatriate?
Yes. The IRS states that people who meet the conditions are not covered expatriates under section 877A and are not liable for unpaid tax and penalties for those years or earlier ones. In effect, a qualifying submission resolves the five-year compliance certification that a person who never filed could not otherwise make.
Without the procedure, a person who never filed fails the certification test on Form 8854 and is covered whatever their wealth. Our post explaining the covered expatriate tests sets out the three tests and the exceptions. The point here is narrower: the relief removes the certification problem only for people already within the net worth and tax limits, so someone wealthy enough to fail the other tests gains nothing from it.
Being outside covered status matters beyond the exit tax itself. The expatriation tax (opens the official IRS page in a new tab) rules also reach gifts and bequests that a covered expatriate later makes to US persons, which can matter to families with children or relatives in the United States. A qualifying submission keeps the former citizen out of those rules.
How does the relief work for a former citizen in Leeds?
A British-born teacher in Leeds acquired US citizenship at birth through her American mother. She learned of it when her bank sent a FATCA form, renounced at the US Embassy in London some years ago, and received her Certificate of Loss of Nationality. She never filed a US return and never had a Social Security number.
Her home, savings and workplace pension leave her well under $2 million, both on her expatriation date and today. Her income is a UK salary and modest interest. Once UK tax is credited against the US tax on the same income, her total US liability across the six years is small and stays under the IRS ceiling. Her failure to file came from not knowing she was a citizen, which is the kind of conduct the procedure describes as non-wilful.
She files six years of returns under the procedure, the last a dual-status return with Form 8854, and files FBARs for the years her UK accounts crossed the reporting threshold. She pays nothing. Had she filed a US return as a citizen before renouncing, or had an inheritance taken her over the net worth limit, she would be outside the procedure and her returns would be processed normally. Our expatriation service tests each condition before anything is posted.
What if you do not qualify for the relief?
Then the returns are processed under normal rules, and tax, penalties and interest are due as they would be for anyone else. There is no partial version of the relief. Because renunciation cannot be reversed, the conditions are best checked before anything is filed, not after.
Two related routes on the same IRS page cover former citizens who were otherwise compliant. One is for someone who filed every return for the five years before expatriating but never filed Form 8854. The other is for someone who left income off earlier returns, who files amended returns first. In both cases a late Form 8854 goes in with a signed reasonable-cause statement, and the IRS may treat the certification as met if the other conditions hold.
Anyone still holding US citizenship should work in the opposite order: catch up first through the route that fits, then decide on renunciation. Our FBAR and foreign income service handles late FBARs filed with FinCEN, and the full sequence is in our guide to IRS streamlined filing from the UK.
- Prior filing as a US citizen or resident: normal processing, or the late Form 8854 route if all five years were filed
- Net worth at or above the limit on either date: no relief, and the covered expatriate tests apply
- Aggregate tax above the ceiling: normal processing of all six years
- Wilful conduct: outside this procedure and outside streamlined
General information, not advice. The right answer depends on your circumstances and the tax year concerned.
