This study examines the taxation of foreign-earned income, earned by American employees in foreign countries.

For tax year 2011 (the most recent data available), an estimated 445,000 tax returns claimed the foreign earned income exclusion (FEIE), which is 0.3 percent of all individual tax returns filed. About 17 percent of FEIE filers also claimed the foreign housing exclusion or deduction. Over half of FEIE filers reported working for a foreign employer, and less than one-third reported working for a U.S. company; the balance reported working as self-employed or for other entities. Taxpayers were able to exclude from taxable income about $30 billion in foreign earned income and housing costs, with about 45 percent excluding all or most of their foreign earned income. The FEIE reduces the tax liability of U.S. taxpayers working abroad even if they paid no foreign income taxes to another country. U.S. taxpayers in higher tax countries can eliminate their U.S. tax liability using the foreign tax credit, which is intended to prevent double taxation when foreign income is taxed by both the United States and a foreign country.