Expat Tax Lawyers for Undisclosed Assets, Accounts & Income

Expat Tax Lawyers & the IRS

Expat Tax Lawyers 

Expat Tax Lawyers:  When a U.S. person resides overseas, they may still have a U.S. Tax and Foreign Asset reporting requirement. It is important to note there is a distinction between expats who are U.S. persons residing outside the U.S. and expatriates who have relinquished their green card or renounced their U.S. citizenship. The IRS tax rules for expats are very complex — since they are still US persons. Generally, expats are either U.S. Citizens and/or Long-Term Legal Permanent Residents (LTR) who are still subject to US tax on worldwide income.  The international expat tax lawyers at Golding & Golding represent U.S. Citizens, Expats, Foreign Nationals, Legal Permanent Residents (“Green Card Holders”), Businesses, Trusts, and Estates worldwide with IRS International Tax and Expat matters.

Our Expat Tax Lawyers provide 10 important international tax tips.

10 International Tax Tips for Expats

Here are 10 of the more common issues involving expats and U.S. tax:

Worldwide Income

The United States is a Citizen-Based Taxation country (CBT). That does not mean you have to be a “Citizen” (or even residing in the U.S.) to be taxed by the United States. It means that if you are a US person such as a U.S. Citizen, Legal Permanent Resident, or Foreign National who meets the Substantial Presence Test, then you have to pay US taxes just as it you are a U.S. Citizen. And, the U.S taxes you on your worldwide Income.

Therefore, if you earned income in a different country, you still have to report that income on your U.S. tax return. It does not matter if the income is not taxed in the foreign country, and it does not matter if it is exempt in the United States – it still must at least be included in your US tax return.

Review the U.S. Income Tax Treaty

United States has entered into income tax treaties with more than 50 countries. While many of these treaties are nearly identical in content, they often will have nuances and differences — especially on issues involving retirement, pension and Social Security (usually Paragraphs 16-20 of the Treaty.)

While the general proposition contained in many treaties is that the country of residence is usually the country that has the opportunity to tax individuals on issues such as retirement, these rules are not linear — and there are exceptions, exclusions, and limitations depending upon the specific country, the specific treaty, and the specific type of income.

Totalization Agreements

The United States has entered into totalization agreements with around 25 different countries. This is important, especially if you are a U.S. person living overseas who is self-employed in a foreign country.   That is because in accordance with the totalization agreement, you may have a Social Security payment responsibility in only one country, but not the other.

Is important to note that the totalization agreements are not identical, and vary even between neighboring countries. For example, the United States has entered into a totalization agreement with Australia, but has not entered into a totalization agreement with New Zealand.

Foreign Tax Credits

If you already pay tax in a foreign country on income you earn in a foreign country, you may receive a credit for that tax in the United States on the income. For example, if you earned $50,000 of interest income in Portugal and paid 11% tax, then when you report that income under US tax return you will also include the taxes paid on a form 1116. There is an equation that is used to ensure that none of the foreign tax is used to offset US tax on US income so it is not always a dollar per dollar credit – but it is a nice benefit, and often times comes close to a 75% – 100% tax credit.

Foreign Earned Income Exclusion

Over the last few years we have seen many inexperienced practitioners using the exclusion for clients in which it does not apply. In order to claim this exclusion, you have to meet either the Physical Presence Test or the Bona-Fide Residence Test. If you have not lived outside the country for at least 330 days in any 12 month period, you will not qualify for the Physical Presence Test. And, if you live the majority of the time in the United States, you will presumably not qualify for the Bona-Fide Residence Test.

Also, you cannot switch back and forth each year between the two separate tests, so it is important to work with a practitioner who understands the application of the exclusion and when it qualifies.

The exclusion is a bit of a red flag so if you are on that cusp of believing you may qualify or not qualify, you should have your ducks in a row at the time of the tax return submission.

FBAR

We have written hundreds of articles on this subject already, including Case Studies, Examples, and FAQ. The FBAR is the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Account Form. It is required to be filed by any individual who has more than $10,000 in annual aggregate total, in foreign accounts on any day of the year. Is not filed along with your tax return; it is filed separately, electronically with the Department of Treasury on that FinCEN website. It is due at the same time your tax return is due – including extensions.

If you are out of compliance for prior years, this is not the form to quietly disclose. In other words, if you are out of compliance, then you should speak with an experienced offshore disclosure attorney to prepare strategy for getting into compliance.

If you only just learned about this form and are about to file your first FBAR, but you were required to file in prior years, do not file the form until you have spoken with an attorney.

FATCA Form 8938

FATCA is the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. It is required in order to disclose certain specified foreign assets (which may also include accounts). It is similar to the FBAR, but different in many respects. First, it is filed along with your tax return as a form accompanying your 1040. Second, it does not have the same threshold requirements as the FBAR. Threshold requirements are much higher so that less people have to file the form. The threshold requirements vary based on marital status and residence. Third, unlike the FBAR, FATCA Form 8938 requires that you include the income that was generated from the specified foreign assets included on form 8938.

Foreign Investments, PFIC & Form 8621

If you have investments overseas such as a foreign mutual fund, or you are the owner of a foreign corporation that manages investments and you meet the requirements of it being a PFIC, then your tax return just became infinitely harder to prepare. Whether or not you will have to file a form 8621 will be determined by the value of the PFIC assets, whether you or your CPA ever made an election, etc. In addition, depending on whether you have ever made a previous election for the specific assets, and/or whether or not you have any distributions/ excess distributions will impact the preparation of the tax analysis.

The reason why this form 8621 is so important, is because if it is not filed when it is supposed to be filed — then your tax return is considered incomplete and the statute of limitations does not begin to run yet.

Foreign Trusts, Partnerships, or Businesses

Depending on whether or not you have sufficient interest, control, or ownership of a foreign business or trust may determine whether or not you have to file other tax forms such as Form 3520, 5471, or 8865. These forms are considerably complicated, especially for somebody who is not in the business of preparing international tax returns. Moreover, ever since the Internal Revenue Service has made international tax enforcement a mainstay and priority, the penalties that the IRS may issue for individuals out of compliance have increased exponentially. As a result, if you have any sort of interest or ownership (or control) over foreign business or trusts, it is important to determine what your filing requirements are before submitting your tax return to the IRS.

Late Filing Penalties May be Reduced or Avoided

For Taxpayers who did not timely file their FBAR and other international information-related reporting forms, the IRS has developed many different offshore amnesty programs to assist taxpayers with safely getting into compliance. These programs may reduce or even eliminate international reporting penalties.

Current Year vs Prior Year Non-Compliance

Once a taxpayer missed the tax and reporting (such as FBAR and FATCA) requirements for prior years, they will want to be careful before submitting their information to the IRS in the current year. That is because they may risk making a quiet disclosure if they just begin filing forward in the current year and/or mass filing previous year forms without doing so under one of the approved IRS offshore submission procedures. Before filing prior untimely foreign reporting forms, taxpayers should consider speaking with a Board-Certified Tax Law Specialist who specializes exclusively in these types of offshore disclosure matters.

Avoid False Offshore Disclosure Submissions (Willful vs Non-Willful)

In recent years, the IRS has increased the level of scrutiny for certain streamlined procedure submissions. When a person is non-willful, they have an excellent chance of making a successful submission to Streamlined Procedures. If they are willful, they would submit to the IRS Voluntary Disclosure Program instead. But, if a willful Taxpayer submits an intentionally false narrative under the Streamlined Procedures (and gets caught), they may become subject to significant fines and penalties. 

Need Help Finding an Experienced Offshore Tax Attorney?

When it comes to hiring an experienced international tax attorney to represent you for unreported foreign and offshore account reporting, it can become overwhelming for taxpayers trying to trek through all the false information and nonsense they will find in their online research. There are only a handful of attorneys worldwide who are Board-Certified Tax Specialists and who specialize exclusively in offshore disclosure and international tax amnesty reporting. 

Golding & Golding: About Our International Tax Law Firm

Golding & Golding specializes exclusively in international tax, specifically IRS offshore disclosure. 

Contact our firm today for assistance.