BritInSF

Hi - I've gone round in circles a little in trying to determine what i'm supposed to do with regards to filing my US taxes. This is only the second year i'll have done it and last year just used TurboTax which was pretty easy. I can't remember what I said to the question last year but when it gets to "do you have a foreign bank account" and I click through the relevant next pages I'm confused about what i'm supposed to do.

- I have about $25k in an ISA in the UK, plus a current account that earns no interest
- I am in the US on a L1 visa

Everything I seem to have read on the FBAR (?) talks about a "United States Person" which is very ambiguous and I never know how to define myself any more in the US system.

I thought i'd post in this thread as my question ties exactly to the subject but everything above seems to relate to not having to report small amount but i'm not entirely clear whether $25k counts or not.

I guess the second part of that is am I ok still using TurboTax (its pretty simple and I am honestly just looking for a quick solution to filing).

Thanks!

Jerseygirl

Hi..welcome to BE. I have moved your post into a new thread...that way it won't get overlooked in someone else's thread.

Re FBAR...if you have a total of $10K+ in accounts outside the U.S. ithey must be reported. For example...if you have $10,050 in one account and $5 in six accounts..all seven accounts must be reported.

JAJ

You're in the U.S. on an L1 visa, so is your employer not paying for professional tax assistance to help you deal with the U.S. federal and State tax systems? And if not, why not?

As to the rest, even though you're not a U.S. permanent resident, you're still a U.S. resident alien if you meet the substantial presence test.
Substantial Presence Test




And, as I understand it, if you're a resident alien, the information reporting requirements of FBAR apply to you.


For FBAR/FinCen114 - the reporting threshold is $10k, so $25k absolutely does count.

nun

You have to file FBAR because your account balance was over $10k and report all gains in your ISA on your US 1040.

If you have a cash ISA just report the interest.

If you have a stocks and shares ISA you will need to report all dividends and any capital gains. If you own investment funds rather than individual stocks you will need to file PFIC form 8621.

nun

You can certainly use Turbo Tax. It will ask you about your foreign accounts and the direct you to the Treasury website to file FBAR. You'll need an up to date version of Adobe Acrobat as to file FBAR you download an Acrobat file, fill it out and submit it. US Treasury obviously assumes that anyone with >$10k in a foreign account must have access to a computer.