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'

Description

Essential U.S. tax matters do not have to be boring! This book is accurate, very easy to understand and humorous. It is an aid for U.S. tax filers living outside the United States, describing the 'basics' of what they need to know in order to comply with laws that they are not being made aware of.

This is the fifth year in this series of annual books about taxation for the U.S. expat.

Sujets

• Taxation
• Droit et juridique
• Law

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 28 février 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456624330
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Larry's 2015 U.S. Tax Guide for U.S. Expats,
Green Card Holders and Non-Resident Aliens
in User-Friendly
English!
 
 
by Asian Tax Review's
 
Laurence E. 'Larry' Lipsher

Copyright 2015 by prctaxman.corp, #7-F, The Garley Building, 53 Graham Street, Central, Hong Kong
All rights reserved
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2433-0
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Please note: This edition was started on 29 December 2014 and was completed on 10 Febuary 2015. It is, though, an ongoing 'work in process' as regulations and procedures - coming from the IRS, this past year, a year of a do-nothing Congress - really do justify spending my month’s vacation in Thailand, masochistically staying attentive to U.S. Tax matters for yet another year of my life. Regardless, if there are changes worth note, then I'll include them within my website: www.lifeilao.com …
 
Also written by Larry Lipsher
 
The Tax Analects of Li Fei Lao (2009) - it is still relevant, after all these years, proving that tax laws around the world do not change as frequently as U.S. Tax law.....it really is a great book, even if I do say so, myself!!
Larry's 2011/2012/2013/2014 Supplement Tax Guides for the U.S. Expat and Green Card Holder - in User Friendly English! - I think you will find that one can write tax comedy - or at least come as close as you can get to writing tax comedy, because absolutely nothing is funny about being caught in a penalizing tax conundrum, no matter which jurisdiction is seemingly attempting to extort what you believe is an unfair, unjustifiable amount out of you. Still, you, the reader, must assume some tax education responsibility to protect yourself and if you've got to read something, these books are the ones you truly want to read - unless you are suffering from insomnia, in which case I seriously suggest that you go to the IRS website, www.irs.gov .
A few words (actually, a whole lot more than a few!) about the author....
Who the hell is Larry Lipsher (and why is he doing this)?
Laurence E. 'Larry' Lipsher is an American CPA who has been doing U.S. tax returns for the past 48 years. Imagine, 48 years as a bean counter - how dreadfully boring! While he proudly states that over the past four-plus decades on the job, he has yet to develop serious brain damage from a life of tax work, those around him seriously wonder. Lipsher has worked in Asia for a quarter of a century, living for 24 of those years, since 1990, in China - he changed from being just a bean counter to, literally and figuratively being a rice counter , too, because CPA in Mandarin, really means rice counter!
Lipsher, a past president of the American Chamber of Commerce of South China, has, for the past twelve years been writing the Asian Tax Review for Worldwide Tax Daily of Tax Analysts, Washington, DC. He has been featured on CCTV (China Central Television) World Wide Watch, the most widely viewed evening television news program in the world. He appears frequently on CNN , Wall Street Journal television, Reuters TV and CNBC. Lipsher specializes in tax issues involving jurisdictions throughout Asia as well as U.S. tax matters – particularly as they apply to U.S. tax filers living and working outside of the United States. Lipsher has lived in the Pearl River Delta capital city of Guangzhou since 1994. He is one of only a very few foreigners ever to have been given a business license to practice as a certified public accountant in the People's Republic of China. He is the only non-Chinese writer ever to have articles (two of them) translated and published in the China Accountant, the official monthly publication of the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Lipsher has also been writing monthly articles about international tax matters for TaxIndiaInternational.com . All in all Lipsher has written over 300 tax articles since his very first article appeared in the AICPA Journal of Accountancy in 1979.
Truth be told, Lipsher would rather write fiction than non-fiction but has not yet become 'passionate' enough to spend the time doing this. Alas, Lipsher is nothing more than a 'weekend musician' jazz chromatic harmonica player because while the interest is there, the passion to practice is still lacking. Yet the passion is there to masochistically attempt to write a user-friendly overview of what the U.S. expat and green card holder has to be aware of for the coming year, a year guaranteed to be even more onerous based on actions of the IRS towards those obligated to file who happen to reside outside of the United States. Alas, dear readers, the IRS wants more and more and more from you. To the fullest extent possible, this book is written to provide you with what we believe is all you really need to know as an overview of how you must interface, on an annual basis, with the U.S. government.
Hey, it is far from being the whole enchilada (but much, much more than adding chili relleno to the plate!). Yet please remember that while this is an overview, you are legally responsible to understand, if for no other reason than saving yourself from 'willful neglect' and the penalties – costly, of course – that the IRS will assess for willful negligence (which the courts deem you to display as preposterous as it seems). We ask you to do something different, something you have likely never done before when matters of tax are concerned: read this book for fun! No, I am not out of my mind – I have tried to be as funny and cynical as I can possibly be – ONLY because I want you to have fun reading this!
Don't read the whole book if you are not interested – simply read the sections that you feel are applicable to your situation. If you want to read the whole thing, from start to finish – hey, it's not really that long and you might actually enjoy it!
And to finish this ‘prelude’ let us use some IRS ‘suggested’ words…..
IRS CIRCULAR 230 DISCLAIMER: Pursuant to regulations governing the practice of attorneys, certified public accountants, enrolled agents, enrolled actuaries and appraisers before the Internal Revenue Service, unless otherwise expressly stated, and U.S. federal or state tax advice in this book is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used by a taxpayer for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties that may be imposed under federal or state law or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or tax-related matter(s) addressed herein.
O.K. that was enough of a prelude….now let’s get to the annotated table of contents and then to the introduction!
My not so infamous, semi-annotated Table of Contents
The ‘preliminary’ stuff – you know, the sort of pages that are at the start of each and every book you see.
 
A book introduction for the very sixth time – where I start opinionating – with varying degrees of cynicism and humor thrown at the start to try to make things enjoyable
 
A ‘real’ executive summary of the U.S. tax system – as it applies to expats (both citizens and green card holders) and non-residents with ‘reportable’ U.S. investments (WARNING: some of this writing is quite boring!)
 
• What is income?
• ‘The’ executive summary for overseas U.S. tax return filer
• FAQs
 
…..and here’s something for those who have to file the 1040-NR – My 1040-NR section
 
FATCA and FBAR – some history, how these programs have evolved, what’s now happening, what does the future portend (including the OECD’s CRS scheduled for 2017) – Hey, there are actually two sections here – if I do say so, myself, this is some good writing!
 
The forms you have to be aware of , living outside of the United States, cynically annotated but still boring!
 
Schedule B, Part 3 of the 1040
FinCEN 114
8938
2555
1116
8965
5471/8865
8858/8858 Schedule M
3520
8621
8832
14653
 
Banking and investing forms you are going to be asked for: W-9 and W-8 BEN E – This is the sort of stuff that makes for Kafka-esque, bureaucratic nightmares!
 
The Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), Social Security and Medicare – Should you be glad you live outside the US?
 
Capital gains and capital loss transactions – a refresher – before they change it and increase rates
 
The AMT – Always a system no one quite understands
 
Penalties, interest and the statute of limitations – Better to be aware of these – they truly can ruin you!
 
OVDP and the new Streamlined Procedures – note, there are different residency requirements, here!
 
Giving and receiving – you’ve got to report both giving (ever hear of the gift tax return?) and receiving – receiving from anyone, whether foreign trusts, gifts and bequests to you from either related or unrelated individuals (even if they are not US tax filers) will be costly if you do not report !
 
Returning to the United States after a lifetime overseas
 
Expatriation as an alternative that you might seriously want to consider – especially if you are an overseas business person and have to endure the indignities of FATCA
 
Comments after a lifetime of investing from a battle-scarred, (hopefully) wise, but lousy investor; thoughts about the investment needs of different generations…..and ‘letting go’…..
 
End notes – and that they will truly be: 9 February 2015 is the final day writing this book – after writing and giving myself a day to review the end notes and ascertain that I didn’t make a fool of myself, I’ll submit the manuscript to the publisher and begin my 49 th consecutive tax season!!!!!
The introduction – for the sixth time I’m doing an introduction to a tax book.
Am I tired of writing tax books? Yes and no – I’d love to write fiction but recognize a