There's a point where, if my taxes get too complicated, I hire a tax professional. I've never regretted it. The man knows his stuff and has always found me money I never I knew I had coming to me.

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Oh! Who are you on mixi? I'm adania (of course?) Will you mymiku me? :P
Regarding taxes, you know about the "foreign earned income exclusion" right? You don't have to pay taxes on up to $70,000 per year of income earned abroad (at least in tax treaty countries, which japan is). You just have to have lived here for at least 330 days by the time you file. And you can get up to 4 months of extensions for filing abroad. The first 2 months are actually automatic, even!
I didn't actually file the last 2 years, but i know i didn't owe anything, so hopefully that won't come back to bite me someday (like when i apply for financial aid to attend grad school someday, perhaps...)
I plan to file this year, even though i still don't owe anything. Maybe some lovely day i'll make enough to be above the exclusion, but somehow i doubt that. Teaching just isn't a very luctrative career.

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The company (all praise the company) is having someone professional figure out the taxes stuff - or at least, I got a request from someone at Ernst & Young for all the appropriate paperwork. "Unfortunately", I make enough that I'm probably going to have to file hither, thither, and yon. (And I don't know if I should join the National Insurance, or if I should get $localoffice to technically be my employer, or....)

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