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Laurence E. 'Larry'. Larry's 2011 Tax Guide for U.S. Expats & Green Card Holders....in User-Friendly English!
The introduction. a delightful way to ease on into what your tax system is like, including a description of who does not have to file a tax return (and by definition, if you are not eligible for this classification - like most of us - then you do have to file a tax return!). This section also serves to introduce the brand new Form 8938!
The ‘final’ U.S. tax act of 2010. The Tax Relief Act of 2010. The end of the working year in Washington, DC for those 535 U.S. Senators and Members of Congress was 17 December 2010. On that date, Congress passed and the President signed the last tax act of 2010, only to begin again, squabbling over what our tax system should change to, early in 2011. Here are the items from this act that will impact American tax filers residing outside of the U.S
The Alternative Minimum Tax. the dreaded AMT. All my accounting friends have started taking wagers over whether I could actually write an intelligible explanation of the AMT. Well, here it is, folks - you be the judge!
So you’ve become an expat - this is it - the real ‘nuts and bolts’ of why you’ve probably purchased this book. This section contains the things you need to know to take advantage of the various and sundry exclusion laws - the ones you truly want to take advantage of!!
F(u)BAR & FATCA - the new rules, the new laws.....OUCH! By the way, I take sole responsibility for adding that ‘u’ between the F and the B for FBAR.....not only can you not pronounce the two letters FB together....but that fubar acronym is truly fitting and proper for these newly enforced regulations!!!
TDF90.22-1 - my narrative about that F(u)BAR form. you have to file by 30 June 2011 as your calendar year 2010 report. A copy of this form and its instructions is at the back of the book, within the appendix
Form 2555 & Form 5471. The form needed to exclude foreign earned income and housing and the information return you need to attach to your annual income tax return if you own more than 10 percent of a foreign corporation. You’ll also find this 4 page form and its schedules in the appendix. Alas, reading this will be a bit more boring than the other sections - it is tough to be cynical when you have to be simultaneously informative in discussing controlled foreign corporations and the information that you are responsible for reporting if you own your own business outside of the U.S
Retirement planning. If you are generation X,Y or Z, then you probably are not going to be interested in this section because they’ll have likely changed the entire social security system once you get close to retirement age. On the other hand, if you are an old fart, like me, then you will be interested in this overview of how you get ‘into’ the system
Expatriation - the ultimate decision. Some of you, out there, born in the USA but residing for 20, 30, 35 years outside the U.S., are no longer concerned about citizenship matters - especially since you are going to reside wherever you may be, outside of the U.S., for the rest of your life. Others of you might be green card holders who once had valid need for that green card. But now? Many of you, in light of far different circumstances than you ever imagined, will now be giving the idea of giving back your green card some serious consideration....this section is written for you!
Form 1
Form 2
Form 3
Form 3(b)
Form 4
Form 5
Form 6
Form 7
Form 7(b)
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Here's a question for you: What do Albert Einstein and Douglas Shulman, the current the Commissioner of the IRS have in common? The answer is something they have in common with most people: they each had to/have to pay someone to prepare their U.S. tax returns for them.
If you do not think that there is something wrong with this, then perhaps you should think about it in more detail - In my opinion, it is very, very wrong! It is wrong to have a system so complex that the head of the IRS can't even prepare his own return. Heck, preparing one's own return should be a mandatory requirement for any Commissioner - it just might be a humbling experience, a wake up call, if you will, that the system stinks!
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All this adds up to the fact that there are few – very few U.S. expats or green card holders residing outside of the U.S. who are not going to have to file tax returns………for the rest of us, well…..we’re stuck – we all have to file, providing more data than we used to submit.
Yes, it is a pain in the rear end….but the law’s the law and let me state as clearly as I can, that while I feel the law stinks, I do not advocate violating it!
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