Читать книгу Larry's 2015 U.S. Tax Guide for U.S. Expats, Green Card Holders and Non-Resident Aliens in User-Friendly English - Laurence E. 'Larry' - Страница 7

O.K...Here we go: these are the rules…..the tax rules applying to you, the expatriate U.S. tax filer (the real ‘nuts and bolts’ reason you’ve probably justified buying this book). We’ve updated where updates are necessary. Otherwise, we left this section pretty much the same as that of last year and the year before that, etc, because it works! If it works, don’t screw with it, only tweak it, as necessary, based upon current law changes, $$ changes, etc, etc, etc

Here’s my ‘executive summary’ of the most important stuff - these are the absolute basics - at least read these because they are ‘unchanging’ - I used them in my first book (The Tax Analects of Li Fei Lao) and I used them way back in the early 1990s, when I printed out my first brochure for expats. Yeah, some of it will be boring but if reading that boring stuff can save you some money, then read it!!

*If you are a U.S. citizen or resident alien and meet minimum income standards (anything above your standard deduction plus exemptions), then you are liable for filing an annual U.S. income tax return, regardless of where you are living or where you income is derived. If you are single, you have a 2014 standard deduction of $US 6,200 plus an exemption of $US 3,950, meaning that for all intents and purposes, if your income is under $US 10,150, you don’t have to file…..but***** The United States taxes on worldwide income. You are required to file your return even though you do not owe anything. Yes, there are perks for overseas filers - there’s a foreign earned income exclusion, there’s also a foreign housing exclusion. Yet take a look at the costs of living overseas and in many locations where that housing exclusion is not enough. I have an apartment in Hong Kong. I love that apartment but realize at some point of time I will lose it because the cost of real estate is rising beyond their current, stratospheric levels. Unless you’ve experienced the costs of real estate outside of the U.S. it is truly difficult to conceive of how essential that foreign housing exclusion is. But my friends in Hong Kong who come from other countries don’t have a foreign earned income or housing exclusion because they are not taxed on the income they earn outside of their home country.

*****here’s that ‘caveat’: FATCA seems to directly bypass current law with provisions that extend the statute of limitations to 6 years for 'substantial...omissions'. And would you care to guess what the IRS deems to be a substantial omission? How about $US5,000 and/or 25 percent of reported income derived from offshore assets. Frankly, if the IRS sincerely believes that $US5,000 is substantial, then the U.S. economy is in far deeper a hole than any of us could have ever imagined! Yet what does that mean to you the potential tax filer living overseas who might have under that $US 10,150 reporting threshold but over $US5,000 from overseas……are you subject to those extortion-like FATCA penalties if you don’t file?

Yes, the U.S. is an ‘exception’ to most countries because of its worldwide taxation and filing requirements. Don’t bitch and moan about it, there is nothing you can do about it. You want to file, though, because if the IRS ever inquires about where your tax returns are, before you’ve filed, you are likely to lose that foreign earned income exclusion and housing exclusion, making it a very costly ‘experience’ for non-filers!

* If you are paid by a U.S. employer, from a U.S. corporation, with an annual W-2 issued to you, you are likely going to be subject to withholding for both taxable earned income plus Social Security taxes. Based upon your overseas residency, though, you are still eligible for the foreign earned income exclusion.

* If you are not paid by a U.S. employer and expect to have a tax liability over and above your exempt earned income and housing exclusion (and we’ll get to those exclusionary amounts later on), then you are going to be responsible for filing quarterly estimated tax filings and payments. If these payments are late, then you will have late payment penalties, too!

* You have an automatic extension through 15 June, just because you live outside the U.S. and you can get a virtually automatic extension of time to file through 15 October of the succeeding tax year but if you owe the IRS anything, you are going to have to pay interest to the IRS (and perhaps, underestimation payment penalties, too!). These start accruing 16 April - so you are not totally off the hook by filing extensions....You can also get an additional extension of time to file through 15 December. While this is not ‘automatic’, I have rarely seen anyone turned down if they apply on a timely basis for these additional two months.

* If you have a bank account overseas - and if you are living anywhere in the world, let’s face it, you are likely to have a local bank account - or several - or a brokerage account overseas, the Department of the Treasury wants you to tell them about these accounts in an annual form that has to be filed by 30 June of the subsequent year for which you must efile before 30 June 2015 for your 2014 calendar year/U.S. tax year.

FinCEN114 is the name of the form. FinCEN does not stand for ‘financial center’ it stands for Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. From what used to be an information return paper filed with the Detroit, Michigan IRS Service Center is now a mandatory form that can only be efiled. If you use a Mac, you can’t always access the system with ‘regularity’ because not only is FinCEN114 not readily accessible with an Apple computer but if you are in Windows, and do not use Internet Explorer, you’re going to have problems, too. True, there is marked improvement this year over last year but this, in my opinion, is still pathetically below the standards that we should expect.

If you need to find out something about the IRS, go to their site: www.irs.gov. If you need to sign up for Obamacare, go to www.healthcare.gov. Fine. You can easily remember these URLs. How about this one: http://bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov/NoRegFBARFiler.html. That’s how you access and file FinCEN114!

Think you can remember this? Who is the responsible party for allowing a URL like this? How the hell can you be ‘user friendly’ and have compliance when, you make it difficult to comply - assuming, of course, that you even know that you are supposed to comply?

In essence, for every country where you have an account or accounts totaling $US10,000 or more, then all bank and brokerage names, addresses, account numbers and the highest amount, in U.S. dollar equivalent, at any one time during 2014 must be listed for that country. Yes, you can file this form late or you can file an amended return – there is a place for you to explain why you are doing this. Seriously: File this return on time! There really is sufficient time for you to do so…..but if you have to be late, file late!!!

If you are living outside of the U.S., married, filing jointly and your FinCEN114 shows an ‘accumulation’ of over $US400,000 you are liable for also including Form 8938 with your individual income tax return. Yes, this is a duplication of the filing you are making with FinCEN114 – only because there are different computer systems and data bases, here, and they don’t quite talk with one another – why the IRS didn’t bother to outsource this to some shop in India to get it right at the start is beyond me. Anyhow, bitch and moan while duplicating the submission of similar information – there ain’t much you can do about it.

* If you are liable as of 31 December 2014 for income tax from the foreign country you reside in regardless of whether you’ve paid it, yet, in 2014, you can actually use that amount towards computing and getting a foreign tax credit. Be aware though that you never get dollar for dollar tax credit: the proportion of foreign earned income and foreign housing exclusion to your total income in 2014 is the proportion of the taxes you paid (or are liable for) overseas that are not eligible for dollar-for-dollar tax credit!

* If you have set up a corporation as your business overseas, you are responsible for filing an annual information return, form 5471 that must be filed, annually, as part of your individual income tax return. In fact, you must file this form if you only own 10 percent of a business - this is part of ‘foreign investments’ that U.S. tax filers are responsible for reporting - and penalties for not filing are simple: it will cost you a flat rate, $US 10,000 that will be assessed by IRS letter if they inquire of you before you file with them. If you earn any income from that corporation, that must be reported, as well, even though it is eligible for foreign earned income exclusion. If you are self-employed and report your annual business income on a 1040 Schedule C while you will still be eligible for foreign earned income exclusion, but you will not be exempt from Social Security obligations even though your work is outside of the U.S. Likewise, if you are a partner in an overseas partnership, then you are responsible for filing Form 8865, the partnership ‘equivalent’ of the corporation Form 5471. Oh, what if you’ve got an under-10 percent ownership in that corporation or partnership but your interest in that business entity is over $U.S. 50,000? Then you have to report it on Form 8938. Alas, our tax system is not user-friendly and sadly, it appears to be getting worse on an annual basis.

*Publication 54, Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad. Go to the followingT URL: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p54.pdf. The 2014 edition (for tax year 2014) of this guide became available on the IRS website, 19 December 2014. If, perhaps, the IRS took a bit more time to make this 38 page booklet a bit more user-friendly, there would not be need for me to write this book. Alas, while Publication 54 is something you really should all look at, bear in mind that it just might serve as a holistic sleeping pill.

* How long do I keep my paperwork regarding taxes? That question was posed to me, subsequent to writing most of this essay. Damn, that is a good question! I honestly don’t know what to tell you: what if a couple of years from now you discover you have omitted something important from your prior tax filings and have absolutely no alternative than to go through the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program? Well the extortionists who run this program (think I am going too far in saying this? Read the Taxpayer Advocate’s 2015 report to Congress and tell me this in not extortion!) want 8 years of filings. That would mean tax years 2007 and subsequent. If you have good reason for it, then save whatever you wish to save from earlier years but I think you can safely junk most of that earlier-year stuff.

That’s it - these are the absolute basics.....according to me, at least......now let us get on to some specific details - at least the details I deem important for you to know. Bear in mind that this is ‘one man’s opinion’ and you should rely upon more than just this - even a cursory look at both tax forms and instructions really is becoming necessary.