Offshore Living Letter is a publication of Live and Invest Overseas. Our goal is to provide timely, actionable information on all things offshore, including: how to go offshore, diversifying your portfolio, wealth creation, protecting your assets, and much more.
Category: Taxes
28
Sep
The Key To Sizing Up Your Tax Burden When Shopping For A New Home Overseas I'm in the United States during election season for the first time in decades. In addition to electing the usual officials in Illinois where I'm staying, the state is holding a referendum to change the state constitution to allow for [...]
07
Sep
Why You Should Start Estate Planning Now
Estate planning is something everyone needs to think about even if all they intend to do is put a will in place designating what assets go to which heirs. Without a will in place, the deceased is considered intestate and their assets will be divided up based on the laws of the state where they […]
15
Jun
A Guide To Tax Obligations For U.S. Citizens Living Overseas
The World’s 7 Best Offshore Tax Havens Post-Pandemic The United States and Eritrea, a small African nation, are the only two countries in the world to tax citizens on their worldwide income no matter where they live. Other countries tax their citizens only when they reside or earn money in that country. The bottom-line practical [...]
27
Feb
The Problems With Wealth Tax: Why It Just Doesn’t Work
What’s This About A U.S. Wealth Tax? It’s that time of year again… It’s tax season. Thankfully, no big changes for U.S. tax filers this year. However, one big potential tax change is being discussed among the Democratic presidential nominees—a wealth tax. Each presidential hopeful suggesting the United States begin taxing its “wealthy” has his [...]
17
Feb
History Of Belize: From Maya Settlement To Melting Pot
This Is Still One Of The World's Top Offshore Havens In addition to the Maya, you've got the Kriol people. The Kriol of Belize are descended from the British and Africans who settled much of the country's coastline in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. They, like the Maya, continue to influence local politics, the [...]
13
Feb
Portugal’s Non-Habitual Residency Tax Updates: The Truth
Portugal’s NHR Tax Program Is Undergoing Changes—Here’s What You Need To Know Many readers have written to me over the last couple of months asking for confirmation and clarification of rumors they’ve read online about changes to Portugal’s Non-Habitual Residency (NHR) tax program. I’ve seen the articles myself. Some say the NHR is being eliminated [...]
16
Sep
The Challenges Of Tax Filing While Being Abroad
Oct. 15 Looms—Here's What You Need To Know To Stay Compliant That is, any American who filed for an extension is now buckling down to prepare his 2018 tax return... myself included. One related topic that has been generating lots of questions for me, both during last week's Retire Overseas Conference in Houston and in my inbox [...]
08
Apr
Admitting Defeat On Tax Form 5471… For This Year Anyway
How The IRS Finally Got Me To Cry Uncle OK. I give up. I started working on my U.S. tax returns last week. Ordinarily, that'd have allowed me plenty of time to finalize everything in time to file on the 15th. But these are not ordinary times, dear fellow offshore American. The changes as represented [...]
07
Mar
An Update On Tax Changes And Qualified Opportunity Zones
Qualified Opportunity Zone Tax Breaks—Setting The Record Straight The U.S. tax code is nearly 75,000 pages long. That is to say… U.S. taxes are the most complicated in the world. Tax bills are passed based on political whim and agenda and then the IRS is tasked with drafting detailed regulations to connect the new laws [...]
14
Feb
How To Stay Compliant With Offshore Taxes
Everything The American (And Canadian) Needs To Know About Offshore Taxes This month’s issue of my Simon Letter service features my annual review, overview, and update on taxes for the American abroad. The big change affecting us Americans overseas since my report this time last year is the 2017 tax law that now forces U.S.-controlled [...]