I am an American citizen and I have been living and working in China for over one year. I am now what the American government would consider a "bona fide" resident of China. Even so, I understand that I must pay US taxes on my chinese income, which I have received from working at an English training school in China as an English teacher. However, my chinese income is is relatively low (probably equivalent to poverty level income in the US) so, [B]I want to know if I can simply file a 1040 tax form to report this income without filing the 2555 or the 1116? To me, it seems like a lot of trouble to file a 2555 for income exclusion and/or a 1116 for tax credits unless my Chinese income was a significant amount. My situation is simple; I have no children, no US earned income in 2011 and no passive income in 2011 to report. I know I do not owe any money nor will I be due a refund with such a small chinese income. I just want to file a federal tax return to keep the IRS off my back in case I want to return to the USA to live in the future.

Yes, you are not required to file Form 2555 or 1116 if you do not want Foreign Income Exclusion or Foreign tax credit.
You are not even required to file your tax return if your worldwide income is less than the filing requirement.

What MukatA says is accurate, but let's be clear: if your earned Chinese income exceeds $3,650, you ARE required to file a U.S. tax return. You may owe NO income tax, but the filing requirement DOES exist.

Thank you AtlantaTaxExpert. You are right. MukatA is definitely wrong about not having the filing requirement. Perhaps this is true in other countries, but the American tax laws clearly stipulate that if you are an American citizen, no matter what your financial situation is, you MUST file a tax return every year no matter where you are living in the world. Perhaps if you never wanted to return to America and take up residency again, then you could probably get by without filing any returns, but, I simply want to cover my *** in case I end up moving back to America in the future.

A U.S. citizen or resident is required to file only if the income exceeds the filing requirement. Your U.S. Tax Return: 2010 Filing Requirements for Most Taxpayers