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June 23, 2025
Markus is the third guest in our US Tax Career Spotlight series. I’ve known him since 2020 and met him in Vienna a few years back - long enough to see him grow MyExpatTaxes into the hugely successful firm it is today. You can follow Markus on LinkedIn here.
Let's get started!
1. Can you tell me who you are, your current role, and what you do day-to-day?
I’m one of the founders and COO of MyExpatTaxes. My day-to-day varies greatly depending on the time of the year – during the deadline peaks, I’ll be working alongside the support team answering customer queries through email and live chat. Outside of the peak deadline times, I can be found supporting the POPs and Marketing team with their various tasks, partnerships, and generally keeping an overview of the day-to-day operations to execute our overall strategy.
2. How did it all begin? What sparked your interest in tax, and what led you to specialise in the US/International space?
My co-founders and I all have a tech background, but it was about solving a real-life problem for us. One of my fellow co-founders, Nathalie Goldstein, is a US expat, so she had “the problem” – filing her US taxes abroad. After hearing about her continuous issues with filing, we all agreed that it shouldn’t be as complicated as it was, as expensive as it was, and very much still offline (at the time).
So we set out to create the best software for US expats to file their US tax returns. “How hard could it be?” we told ourselves, somewhat naively, looking back. I remember Nathalie finishing tax returns into the early morning hours while we all worked together to try and automate the process as much as possible.
When we launched in 2018, we gained traction very quickly. Our next logical step was to respond to our clients’ requests: we began offering more forms, services, and support.
While my interest may not always have been taxes, once we got started, the enjoyment of solving issues that thousands, if not millions, of Americans deal with on an annual basis sparked a new passion (which, of course, sounds cheesy, but hey, it’s true).
3. Can you walk us through your career path? What were some key moments or decisions that got you to where you are today?
After high school, I started in advertising and marketing, but then started at an internet service provider-“just temporarily,” or so I thought. But I liked working with the new tech. I went back to school while working full time and focused on support services, project management, and information management-the human side of technology, so to speak.
So shifting from marketing to IT was definitely a defining moment in my professional life. And then, ultimately, meeting my co-founders and deciding to go into business together. None of us were the typical start-up bros, fresh out of college without a care in the world.
We all had families, responsibilities, and experiences that helped us navigate the early, challenging start-up years. How do you decide who to hire? When? How do you look at your business and decide whether to double down or pivot? Having a higher level of responsibility and people depending on us was, in my opinion, a tremendous boost.
4. What makes the US/International tax space so unique and appealing compared to other areas of tax?
There are a couple of aspects: It’s a real problem. Our clients don’t “feel like” filing their tax return, but they have to. It’s a legal requirement that they cannot squirrel their way out of (no matter how hard some try). But very few people enjoy filing their taxes. So it’s a great opportunity to recognise that and be able to help people.
Secondly, it’s a very personal matter for every client. While there are many similar situations, every client's situation is unique at the end of the day. That juxtaposition offers great opportunities to automate most tasks, while we can focus on consulting and advising our clients, delivering tangible benefits for them.
5. Why should someone consider this niche? What’s the career appeal?
I would say you can help someone solve a real issue they couldn’t easily solve. Isn’t that the greatest feeling to have?
Beyond that, this job can be done entirely remotely, which, as we all know, is a great appealing factor for many!
6. What skills or traits are crucial for success in this field?
Stress resistance is a good trait to have. You’ll have to deal with multiple tax deadlines, both with the US and local tax deadlines. Even if you’re only focusing on the US side, you need to be aware of when Portuguese or German tax returns are due and paid, so that you can gauge when your clients can report their Foreign Tax credits.
The second is empathy. You need to be able to understand and guide your clients to their best tax outcome.
Being able to speak in plain terms is next – you can keep quoting tax law to your clients, but that won’t help them if they do not understand the complicated jargon. You need to be able to put this in easy layman’s terms so that they can make an informed decision. That’s something we put a lot of focus on when we’re hiring at MyExpatTaxes.
7. What are the main challenges of working within the US tax system?
Some of these are routine – and I don’t mean easy, but it’s some you can prepare yourself for: Going through the e-filing certification every year, updating forms and calculations that are often not as well documented as you’d expect, can be a challenge. That’s why we’re proud at MyExpatTaxes to have established such a great relationship with the IRS that we can turn that around very quickly every year.
The other part is more cumbersome-it is somewhat difficult to contact the IRS to resolve an issue, as they still rely heavily on fax machines. So, I would say the somewhat outdated technology, combined with the notorious understaffing, can be a challenge.
Oh, and keeping up with the tax laws that can change at seemingly any time!
8. What keeps you going? What do you love most about your work?
Every day, we help our clients become and stay compliant and cross something mandatory off their to-do list. I know I said it before, but I genuinely love helping our clients solve an issue they cannot escape from (without renouncing their US citizenship, at least!).
9. How has this career shaped your perspective?
Even something as predictable and more or less stable as taxes and taxation comes with many surprises and twists every year. I’m not even talking about the pandemic, but that was a big one!
So, all you can do is prepare as much as you can, don’t take anything for granted, and be ready to learn and adapt… at any point in the year.
10. What are the biggest challenges you face, and how do you tackle them?
Our biggest challenges are a byproduct of our success: MyExpatTaxes has experienced great growth over the last few years, and there are, of course, growing pains that come with that – it’s different to run a company of 50 vs. a company of 10. You need a lot more processes and general guidance, for example. If you change some way you do certain things – regardless if it’s a core task of your work or something administrative in the back – you can just tell and show 10 people. In larger teams, not so much.
So we have brought new team members to focus specifically on this, to make onboarding of new employees more smooth, bring them up to speed and make sure that existing team members are also aware of any changes or updates. Constantly and consistently communicating is key here.
11. Where do you see the US/international tax space heading in the next few years?
There are going to be a lot of challenges and opportunities – more and more Americans are moving abroad, sometimes temporarily (or so they think), often with the permanent relocation as their goal. That also means there will be a lot of newcomers in the tax service market, a few of them emboldened by the promise of quick and easy work through AI and the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion.
AI certainly will have a place, but I wouldn’t trust any hallucinating LLM to prepare anybody’s tax return.
12. What advice would you give to someone thinking about entering this niche?
Two things: First, about yourself: Make sure you have ways to deal with the stress of the deadlines. The weeks leading up and days afterwards can truly leave you feeling exhausted and sometimes even burnt out. Having hobbies outside of the US tax world, and even a self-care routine (of any sort) will be important.
Second, about the clients: Many of them are scared of penalties, they grew up in fear of the IRS, and can quickly panic even about something you, as a professional in the tax world, understand to be a small issue. Try to alleviate those fears and don’t stir them up; having empathy is a huge and often underrated skill in the tax world.
13. How does US tax work compare to opportunities in other countries or tax systems?
From the POV of expats, it’s yet another thing they have to deal with, not (necessarily) something they want to do. And again, US citizens are some of the only people in the world who are required to file at least two separate tax returns (one locally, and one for the US).
When you look at the Austrian tax system, for example, it’s very automated, even to the point that, if for some reason, you choose not to fill out a tax return, the Finanzamt (Austrian IRS) will complete the return for you. Meanwhile, as an American, the IRS insists on you reporting everything manually, even if they have on record what you’ve earned, what you owe, etc.
Now add to that that some common deduction in Austria might not be recognised as deductible at all in the US or vice versa and it can get confusing real quickly!
14. What does a typical day in your role look like?
As the COO of MyExpatTaxes, I deal with many things that come across my desk. The most typical thing about my day is communication. I talk to clients, partners, and mostly with our employees. I also consume what my employees and co-founders tease me as, “an insane amount of coffee” during the work day.
Unless it’s deadline week, then it’s customer support. All day, every day, I'm just doing what I can to make sure our clients are able to file their taxes on time or get an extension.
15. How do you balance your career with everything else in life?
The benefit of being one of the founders: I don’t have set hours and can organize my work around my family’s needs. Which again, allows me to take the time to reset after the stressful deadline periods, be there for my kids at any time in the day, and I keep up with my hobbies: mostly film, some woodworking. (But I need to re-organize my workshop for that. Any day now.)
16. If you had to convince someone why this is a good career to pursue, what would you say?
You will be genuinely helping people. You will be able to ease their frustrations, take away their fear, and just generally improve their lives a little bit.
17. Any closing comments?
While I never really imagined working in the US expat tax space, as an Austrian, it’s been a surprising journey that I find myself consistently learning from. No day ever is the same as the last, and that’s the beauty: the entire lack of monotony.
- Markus Finster
A big thanks to Markus for taking the time to do this interview, and be sure to follow him and his company as they make big waves in the expat US tax industry.
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