04/22/2022
Americans have worked within a citizenship-based taxation system for well over 100 years. In other words, US citizens (as well as permanent residents) must report their worldwide income and file a federal tax return annually. Only in the last decade has this had any real impact on Americans living abroad. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance […]
09/30/2021
FATCA is an acronym for the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, a law passed by Congress in 2010 to help address offshore tax evasion. The law came into effect on July 1st, 2014. FATCA has two aspects that affect expats. First, it requires individuals with financial assets abroad to report them when they file their […]
09/02/2021
Wells Fargo’s US expat clients have until the end of September 2021 to move their brokerage accounts to another provider or face closure. Wells Fargo isn’t the first bank to turn away expats though. In this article we look at why banks and brokerage firms are denying services to Americans living abroad, and what options […]
02/22/2021
All Americans have to file US taxes, reporting their global income, including Americans living abroad. Many Americans who live abroad (as well as many living in the US) own foreign real estate, and they often wonder whether it needs reporting on their American tax return, and if so how. All Americans who have certain foreign […]
01/30/2020
All Americans have to file US taxes, reporting their global income. Expat Americans also often have to file additional reporting forms. Many expats aren’t aware though what exactly these additional reporting requirements involve, and in particular the difference between FBAR and FATCA reporting, or Form 114 vs 8938. In this article we’ll attempt to alleviate […]
12/19/2019
FATCA is the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, a 2010 US law that aimed to help prevent offshore tax evasion. The law has had many unintended consequences though, particularly for American expats all around the world. US tax rules for expats The American tax system is unusual in that it requires American expats to file […]
09/23/2019
Americans living abroad are subject to US taxation on their worldwide income, as well as a raft of other US reporting requirements, such as having to report their foreign financial accounts each year by filing an FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report). FBAR reporting is triggered if any American has a total of over $10,000 in foreign accounts […]
01/31/2019
Americans who live abroad are required to continue filing a federal tax return each year, reporting their worldwide income, even if they’re also filing a tax return in the country where they’re living. When expats file their federal return they can claim one or more exemptions that the IRS has made available by filing the […]
09/03/2018
All Americans have to file an annual federal tax return, even if they live abroad. This is because the US taxes based on citizenship, rather than on residence, so if you’re a US citizen (or green card holder), you have to file US taxes reporting your worldwide income regardless of where in the world you […]
07/16/2018
While living overseas is most often an incredible experience, American expats have to file US taxes from abroad, reporting their worldwide income, often as well as having to file taxes in the country where they reside. This is because, unlike most other countries, the US operates a citizenship based taxation system, meaning that all US […]