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Category: Taxes

06 May
Tax And Estate Planning For The Middle-Class Millionaire

Tax And Estate Planning For The Middle-Class Millionaire

Addressing The Plight Of The Middle-Class Millionaire A friend in the tax business told me today about a law firm he knows that targets clients with net worths of US$100 million or more, the ultra-high-end of the wealth management market. That's a market with fewer than 3,000 potential clients in the United States. Still, the [...]
18 Apr
Staying IRS Compliant As An American Overseas

Staying IRS Compliant As An American Overseas

Late Tax Filing Concerns Of The American Abroad The tax filing deadline for U.S. persons was Monday. Today, the IRS, in its "Tax Tips" e-letter, detailed the penalties for not filing your 1040 form on time. In fact, you face two potential penalties related your 1040 form. Failure to file on time and failure to [...]
15 Apr
Taxes For The American Entrepreneur And Investor Overseas

Taxes For The American Entrepreneur And Investor Overseas

Is It Really Possible To Reduce Your U.S. Tax Bill By Going Offshore? Today is tax day in the United States. Too late to do anything about your 2012 taxes other than to file a last-minute extension if you need to. Meantime, you can (and should) begin to think about ways to mitigate and manage [...]
07 Mar
Financial Planning Strategies For Retiring Overseas

Financial Planning Strategies For Retiring Overseas

The Death Of The 4% Rule (And What That Means For Retirees Overseas) Friend and colleague Paul Terhorst forwarded me an article from the Wall Street Journal(WSJ) that talks about the death of the 4% rule. Paul writes a column for the Overseas Retirement Letter about the financial aspects of retiring overseas, so this kind of thing gets [...]
24 Jan
2013 Foreign Earned Income Exclusion

2013 Foreign Earned Income Exclusion

The most important tool in the U.S. expat’s tax toolbox is the foreign-earned income exclusion (referred to in tax-planning circles as the FEIE or ‘the exclusion’). If you qualify, it allows you to exclude up to US$97,600 in 2013 foreign-earned income from U.S. federal income tax.

03 Jan
Fiscal Cliff Tax Deal’s Implications For Americans Abroad

Fiscal Cliff Tax Deal’s Implications For Americans Abroad

What This Week's Fiscal Cliff Deal Means For Americans Overseas As it stands today, the 11th hour fiscal cliff deal approved earlier this week resulted in US$1 of spending cuts for every US$41 in tax increases, making it possibly the most one-sided victory since the Battle of Little Bighorn. By comparison, when President Ronald Regan [...]
15 Nov
In The Room With The Heaviest Hitters In The Offshore World

In The Room With The Heaviest Hitters In The Offshore World

How To Go Offshore: You Can Do It Yourself (Shocker) This week's Offshore Summit has been organized around a series of panel discussions, one for each of the Five Flags being considered. Yesterday morning, Mark Nestmann, one of the world's leading experts in offshore residency and second citizenship, led a panel discussion related to choosing [...]
25 Oct
Reporting Requirements For Americans With Offshore Bank Accounts

Reporting Requirements For Americans With Offshore Bank Accounts

Non-U.S. Banks Are Beginning To Comply With FATCA Regulations We knew it was coming. Non-U.S. banks are beginning to comply with IRS regulations under FATCA. A friend wrote yesterday to say that her bank in Belize has sent her a letter explaining what they are doing to comply with the FATCA requirements and a waiver [...]
30 Aug
Who Wants Egalite?

Tax Debates In France: Who Wants Egalite?

In doing further curiosity reading after my Monday dispatch to you about the current tax debates here in France, I found some hilarious comments posted on news sites discussing Hollande’s planned increase of the top marginal tax rate in France to 75%. The best was from a young lady who stated (I’m paraphrasing a bit): […]