BACKGROUND: For lowly Americans (engrish teachers and others earning under 3mil yen/year) trying to leave Japan to go back to the States after more than five years with their new Japanese wife often run into nasty problem of their non-filing of US Income Taxes. Getting right with the IRS generally involves filing "late" 1040 tax returns for at least the past six years and minor fines of under $2000. The IRS is normally not interested in such lower income folks---they just want to clear them off their books.
ISSUE: I have an odd problem with my baka American buddy who started in Japan 15 years ago, has lived in China for the past 13 years, and never filed any US income taxes for the "Foreign Earned Income Exclusion."
QUESTION: My baka buddy "claims" he went to the district IRS office in Iowa (his tax home) and they supposedly/bizarrely told him he had, "no tax liability" and didn't ask him to file late returns or anything on his past 15 years of crappy, under 3~4 mil yen/year income.
Is there a special China loophole, that Japan-based Americans do not get?
ALSO: He has a new Chinese wife that he's trying to take back to the States. Will his 15-year, non-filing, tax status with the IRS effect her getting a spouse visa?