My accountant FedExed the paperwork to me today for mw to sign. I'll have it tomorrow and will report back what I find in the package. All he told me was I have to sign on pages 1 and 3 and there was a form for each year we've lived here.
U.S. tax for expats Mixz1, I don't think it's at all unusual for mainland U.S. based accountants to be unfamiliar with the reporting requirements imposed on U.S. persons holding property abroad, maintaining bank accounts abroad, or having interests in corporations abroad (I'm guessing if he'd thought about it, he'd have been having you do these reports, year by year). Cancunmole has really done a good deed in raising the issue of reporting requirements when there was still time left to take advantage of the amnesty period offered by IRS; and, in clarifying what reporting requirements it applied to. U.S. based accountants are also sometimes unfamiliar with the full details of the tax treatment given those living/working abroad. An example of the later would be the ins and outs of the foreign earned income exclusion, which makes the first $87,600 (2008) of foreign earned income excludable from taxable income, when certain conditions are met. [This exclusion applies only to earned income, and reduces the potential income tax bill for earned income. It benefits the self-employed in the same way, but does not apply to the social security taxes self-employed persons must pay on their earned income. See forms 2555, Sch C, and form SE, at www.irs.gov]
Package arrived from accountant. Each form is 4 pages. Sign on pages 1 and 3. Mailing address is post office box for an IRS service center in Ogden, Utah. Big hitch is FedEx will not deliver to a PO box (confirmed by call to FedEx customer support). Googled for Internal Revenue Service "Ogden, Utah" and get street address and phone number. Called and confirmed that I could FedEx to that address. Submitted an online request for a FedEx pickup. Picked up in Cancun at 11:08 AM, delivered in Ogden, Utah next day at 10:12 AM. You gotta love FedEx! If any of you are in the same boat: Internal Revenue Service 324 25th St Ogden, UT 84401-2310 (801) 625-5583
A friend in Cancun is using this tax attorney to guide him through registering both his fideicomisos...terrible web site...but these folks seem to know what they are doing...http://www.taxmeless.com/ I gather (from what this attorney told my friend) that the Feds want to hear about foreign bank accounts held by expats only if they have $10k USD or more in them.
Foreign bank accounts Rivergirl, you're right to remind people that not all foreign bank accounts must be reported. As I said, earlier, it's the total of all accounts that matters. When you reach this threshold, all the accounts must be reported, no matter how small they may be, individually.
as Cancunmole knows I had my accountant research this and he called the IRS and here is what he was told for my case and I do rent my property Spoke to the specialty tax line of the IRS and all you have to do is to file page 1 of form 3520 and ammend schedule b to show you have a foriegn trust.
Voluntary Disclosure I think this last post makes reference to the voluntary disclosure program, for those with problems related to unreported income- not the amnesty for filing reports of foreign bank accounts and certain forms, like 3520 and 5471, that have been the subject of this thread. (An example of the later might be a person with income derived from a trust, or foreign corporation, which was reported as income on the tax return, but without submitting required forms such as 3520, or 5471, the purpose of which is a more full disclosure of the source of the income, and the manner in which it was calculated.) Every taxpayer's situation is a little different, making it difficult to provide a one-size-fits-all response to tax issues. Unreported income, with a risk of criminal prosecution, should be dealt with only with the assistance of tax professionals, in my opinion.
August 10, 2009 IRS ANNOUNCES FURTHER CHANGES IN TDF 90-22.1 FILING REQUIREMENTS On August 7, 2009, the IRS announced as follows: 1. Persons (individuals and entities) with signature authority over, but no financial interest in, a foreign account will have until June 30, 2010, to file IRS Form TD F 90-22.1 for 2008, 2009, and earlier years, with respect to those accounts. 2. Persons (individuals and entities) with a financial interest in, or signature authority over, a foreign commingled fund (e.g. a mutual fund) will have until June 30, 2010, to file IRS Form TD F 90-22.1 for 2008, 2009, and earlier years, with respect to those accounts. (See IRS Notice 2009-62). For these two categories of persons, the June 30, 2010 filing deadline supplements the September 23, 2009 deadline for penalty free disclosure of foreign financial accounts established by the Internal Revenue Service for taxpayers who were unaware of the FBAR filing obligation and who did not have sufficient time to gather the information necessary to file by the annual June 30 deadline. All persons with an interest in a foreign financial account who are not covered by Notice 2009-62 must report such account by September 23, 2009. The Treasury Department intends to issue regulations clarifying the FBAR filing requirements. The administrative relief granted by Notice 2009-62 provides time for the Treasury Department to consider comments, that are solicited in the Notice, on specific issues related to such filing requirements. Please access a copy of Notice 2009-62 http://tinyurl.com/kkh5r6
Hi, Mole. I may have to quibble over this one.... It doesn't look like the quoted language was the actual text of the notice, and it appears to contain some errors, omissions, and ambiguities that the original text doesn't have. It may be better to look here for the wording of the notice, in this case. http://www.irs.gov/irb/2009-35_IRB/ar07.html Everybody, including myself, struggles when trying to paraphrase IRS requirements. Going to the IRS pages, rules, instructions and forms almost always produces a better result: it's just they're not always easy to uptake, on first contact.
