What is Voluntary Disclosure Program? Who can participate in the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP)? This is the latest email from one of our clients. “I am an American living abroad. I have filed overseas tax returns in Hong Kong since I moved there. However, I didn’t know that I...
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Green Card Tax Requirements
Green card holders find green card tax requirements quite confusing. Many of them believe that they are not required to file a US expatriate tax return when they move overseas. Unfortunately, this assumption is far from being correct. Let’s review green card tax issues in more details. Green Card...
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FATCA: Foreign Account Compliance Act and American expats in Mexico
On November 19, 2012 the Treasury announced that the USA and Mexico signed a FATCA agreement. We earlier discussed what is FATCA. This IGA has a profound impact due to a substantial number of US-Mexican citizens living in the USA and American expats in Mexico. This FATCA agreement is based...
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Overseas Taxes Series: How can the IRS prove the willful FBARs violation
What is FBAR? How can the IRS prove the willful FBARs violation? On November 8 a federal district court held that the government could proceed to collect the FBARs penalties from Jon McBride. This is the second FBARs case for year 2012. Let’s review the case to understand how the...
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Filing US Resident Tax Return: Definition of Resident Alien
A foreign national must file a US resident tax return and pay taxes on worldwide income if s/he is considered a resident alien for tax purposes by the IRS. Moreover, this foreign national must report foreign financial assets and file the FBAR (read What is FBAR) or FATCA (read What...
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