02/08/2016
Living abroad can and should be one of life’s great adventures, however for Americans federal tax requirements become more complex once you are living outside the US, and in some cases a lot more, depending on your particular situation. Alongside US federal obligations, Americans who are residents in another country will also probably have parallel […]
02/08/2016
As US expats, we are obliged to file annual returns and pay taxes to the IRS wherever we live in the world. So it would make sense in a way, given the choice, to live somewhere with very low or even no domestic tax rates. Of course most of us don’t have the choice of […]
02/06/2016
Working and living overseas is an adventure that few Americans get to enjoy. An estimated 6.3 million worked abroad in 2012 – many lived in exotic places, immersing themselves in a new culture often very different from that of the United States. But one obligation shared by U.S. citizens everywhere is the requirement to file […]
02/06/2016
You are an American citizen living abroad and you have just found out, through one source and then anothersource that you are required to file US income taxes every year. Who knew? You may feel overcome with an angst and a fear that life abroad – once blissful and so secure – is about to […]
02/06/2016
Welcome to the era of Big Data. The IRS has rapidly expanded its technology so that at a glance they can track virtually everything you do worldwide. It is no longer prudent for any American living outside the US to base any personal planning, including US tax compliance, on the assumption that the US government […]
02/05/2016
If you have a bank account anywhere outside the US, starting in 2015, chances are you will receive a letter saying that your bank must hand over the details of any American accounts, including yours. The letters vary with the country and with individual institutions. But the overall message is that the IRS is about […]
02/05/2016
Find The IRS Before They Find You. This is the last US tax filing season for American expats to become current with the IRS before new laws come into play that will reveal your identity, location and foreign accounts to the US government. Now is the last best chance for Americans living abroad to become […]
02/05/2016
In the 102 years since the US first introduced income tax, the tax code has ‘blossomed’ from 400 pages to … 75,000. It was during the Second World War that the code first really ballooned, from 504 pages in 1939 to 8,200 in 1945. This was attributed to the complexity of funding the war effort. […]
02/05/2016
America; land of the free, home of the brave. For years the US has been seen as the land of opportunity, the country where dreams come true. But for how much longer? There are an estimated 7 million Americans living abroad and the number is only increasing — over 150,000 Americans departed the country last […]
02/05/2016
An astounding 77,000 banks and financial institutions—even some in Russia—have registered under FATCA—the Foreign Account Tax ComplianceAct. America’s global tax law requires foreign banks to reveal American accounts holding over $50,000. Non-compliant institutions could be frozen out of U.S. markets, so everyone is complying. The fact that 77,000 banks have registered and some 70 countries […]