I recently engaged in a discussion with people who are worried that they might be “U.S. Persons” living in Australia. Their primary concern (and understandably so) is the possible U.S. taxation of their Australian Superannuations. For many, the “Super” is considered to be their most important retirement planning asset.
America doesn’t really need skilled immigrants, or does it?
Clearly a potential immigrant to the U.S. with assets in the home or a third country would have to have a special kind of insanity to subject himself to this system with all the paperwork and potential for double-taxation. And it would do this person absolutely no good whatsoever to become a U.S. citizen since this would change nothing. On the contrary, being a citizen would actually make it worse – one might shed a Green Card relatively easily (if done before the immigrant acquired too many assets in the U.S. or abroad) but U.S. citizenship is forever unless one renounces.
If you are a regular reader of my blog ~ you know the tax geek that I am, I write a lot about tax compliance for foreign bank account holders and the effect of the FATCA. FATCA stands for Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. Calling a spade a “large digging instrument”, we know this law is one-sided and forces other countries to enforce US tax laws. And if they fail to comply, they are effectively locked out of US markets and the US dollar ~ the “world currency” for now.
Countries that sign the FATCA Agreement or Inter Governmental Agreement (IGA) are considered tax compliant. This means the banks/ foreign financial institutions (FFI) in these countries send information as demanded by the IRS to their own tax authorities which is then shared with the IRS. This is “Model 1”. Read More
Along with a host of others, many US-Iranian dual nationals are now becoming aware of their US tax and reporting obligations and trying to become US tax compliant. All fine and good. In advising these clients, however, the professional cannot forget that Iran is a sanctioned country and that the US has some very complicated sanction rules in place with Iran. Generally, the sanction rules prohibit US persons from engaging in most business activities with Iran unless a license is first obtained from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
My blog post today, imparts knowledge graciously shared by George M. Clarke, a tax partner at Baker & McKenzie in Washington D.C. George and I have worked on a number of very complex tax matters together and George has an expertise in dealing with the Read More
The United States Treasury Department is now actively working with more than 50 nations to share Americans’ personal financial data that will reveal who is tax compliant, including American expats living overseas. The effort is in support of new FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) laws that require foreign financial entities to report Americans’ account information to US authorities and to undertake mandatory withholding from them to assure compliance with American income tax laws.
The trade-off is that the United States will reciprocate with the data of partner countries’ own citizens with accounts in the States. The laws have been rolling out in varying levels since its enactment in 2010. The US has principal agreements with the 5 big sovereigns of Europe, including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Italy, and has signed a “model agreement” with the United Kingdom …
The inception of, roll out and implementation of FATCA has been clever, if not masterful on the part of the US Treasury. The United States enacted FATCA and began by leaning, mostly, on foreign financial entities and mandating that they comply with certain new rules, including reporting of data on American clients and withholding of monies, to ensure Americans were compliant with US tax laws. Foreign financial interests, in turn, desperately sought relief from their own governments. The US mandates were burdensome and cost prohibitive for them to implement. The solution for financiers was for their own governments, many of whom already have the data the US Read More
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