The same vein runs through most expat conversations. U.S. taxes are burdensome and compliance is difficult. Keeping up with the rules and regulations takes up a big chunk of the expats’ time.
Many financial institutions in countries which have Inter-Governmental Agreements {IGAs} with the U.S. find keeping up with U.S. Bank Secrecy Act reporting requirements so cumbersome that they do not want U.S. citizens to be their patrons. Read More
I have been on many online forums, message boards, and groups for U.S. citizen expats over the past few years. Most posts you see are ones with frantic U.S. citizens overwhelmed with U.S. tax rules & regulations they have to keep up with. This, in addition to keeping up with their resident country’s tax laws, must drive one crazy. These forums provide quick answers; no wonder they are so popular! Read More
United States is one of the few countries in the world in its Citizen-Based-Taxation format. This means that no matter where you live, you need to be current on your U.S. tax filing if you are a U.S. Citizen or Green Card Holder. You are known as an Expatriate or Expat (for short) if you are a U.S. citizen or green card holder living outside the United States. Read More
Ever stare at boxes and boxes of files in your garage or your basement and get an itch to clean up? Or are you the sort who pushes these boxes out of sight and is quite happy to let them be? Whichever personality best describes you, you will want to read this before you decide to throw those papers or cover them up with something fancy, call it art and make it a fixture in your basement!
One of the services my firm offers is assistance in Entity Selection for start-ups. This is usually when we talk about various options available for the incorporator and what type of entity would be the best fit for the start-up in terms of liability exposure, record-keeping, and tax filing. This meeting usually results in setting up an entity, giving the incorporators guide-lines for record-keeping and help with choosing accounting software and set up, and so on, you get the drift?
So off they go with an Entity tucked away neatly under their arm, and the title music plays—you think? But no! Wait, here’s where the music stops with an ugly, teeth-tingling screech… The incorporator comes back at tax time and you look at all the bank statements, and you see the big thou-shalt-not of, “Commingling the Books.”
Everywhere these days, commercials are vying to get you to spend your big tax refunds on their products and services—oh yeah, even that liposuction place! But you just finished preparing your taxes and you find out you OWE Uncle Sam big bucks. That is quite the sticker shock if you are short on cash or are unprepared.
Are you a straggler when it comes to filing taxes? You are not alone! There are many who dread the idea, in fact I know of many tax consultants who have someone else file their own. If you are the glass-half-empty type, then brace yourself, April 18th is right around the corner and the clock is ticking. If you are the eternal optimist, then yes, you still have time to get all your documents together and well, file an extension so you have more time to keep calm and file your taxes.
Remember all that excitement around the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act? Yes, I bet you do! We talked about it here. So it is here- the new FinCEN Form 114 (aka FBAR) filing deadline!
Tax season officially opened January 23rd and I happened to catch an ad on television of Humpty Dumpty doing his taxes sitting on the wall using an over-the-counter tax software bundle on his phone! Well, no surprise there but yes, Humpty Dumpty did have a great fall and yes, he did crack up! I guess there is a moral to this story…my take on that is NOT to do your taxes on the phone in the first place but then again if you are Humpty, you are not going to listen to me, are you?
I for one am glad that 2016 finally ended. Coming out of a contentious election with a boat load of vitriol thrown around, I don’t know about you, but I was swinging between the need for relief for it all to be over and the fear of who would take over the presidency and if it would go into capable hands. I am so glad tax season started so I can get to the business of preparing returns!
There is a lot of attention these days on big companies (Apple, Google, General Electric, Facebook and others) stashing their earnings overseas in what are considered tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes on their corporate income. Some international tax reform proposals have been suggested as to how to get the corporation to either bring this stash back into the U.S. by way of a “repatriation holiday” or “deemed repatriation” or ending the system of tax deferrals. Read More
When that first leaf changes color, there’s a nip in the air, and the sunshine starts to fall into corners it did not before, you know the year is coming to an end. Typically that is when I start getting phone calls for year-end tax planning.
This year has been tumultuous, to say the least, as we recover from all the pre- and post-election trauma or elation depending on which candidate you favored. We need to put our tax plans in place based on what we know about likely tax changes for 2017 and 2018.
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