freerskier

If I move back to the UK as a US citizen I think I can keep any existing Roth and investment accounts as long as you report them via FBAR etc, with no extra tax payable if your total income is below the IRS's "Excludable amount" for the reporting tax year. You may not be able to contribute to them anymore if you are not domicile in the US for tax purposes.

Can anyone clarify or share their knowledge on this one?

mrken30

You may want to read this thread Are Fidelity closing non-resident accounts. Technically you are correct, but occasionally there are issues.

durham_lad

I kept my Roth and investment accounts when I moved back to the U.K. I am a dual US/U.K. citizen. No need to report them on FBAR as they are not foreign accounts. Income from the investments is taxable in both countries and distributions from the Roth are tax free in both countries. Foreign tax credits are used to eliminate double taxation.

I can’t contribute to the Roth because I don’t have any earned income in the US, just pensions.

mrken30

I know we are not meant to advertise, but seeing that Fidelity are known for wanting to close non-US resident accounts, which company do you have your investments with?

durham_lad

My wife’s IRAs and investments were with Fidelity and mine were with Vanguard so before we moved back she opened an account with Vanguard and we moved all her Fidelity funds to Vanguard. We also implemented “agent authorization” over each other’s accounts so the accounts are very easily managed, even from the UK.

freerskier

Got it mrken30 and Durham lad - of course no FBAR, what was I thinking! As you say with the treaties I guess you'd only end up paying tax in 1 country.

I'd also have no earned income on returning to the UK so the accounts would just be there to fund stuff/retirement.

freerskier

Ooo, really - My Roth and Investment account plus my 401k are with Fidelity.

durham_lad

it has been 5 years since we switched, they may have changed their policy since then. We were very happy with them for many years so if you like them then I’d check with them well ahead of moving overseas.

mrken30

Do you have a US based agent authorized to manage your accounts?
I am thinking maybe that's a smart thing to do as it may not raise the same flags. There are also options like Blooom that manage your account to reduce fees. Blooom is quite inexpensive, $95 a year. Thanks for this.

freerskier

Thanks for all the interesting info - Bloom looks intriguing. I'm currently in the US and probably wont return for at least a year or so.

If anyone has used and "authorizing agent" how does it work? Is it like giving them a form of power of attorney to agreed/restricted parameters over your investment account/IRA/Roth?

mrken30

I have had personal capital call me, that also another interesting service. They gave the impression it worked exactly as you say,they choose which investments to invest your money in. However, this is not something I have investigated further.

durham_lad

My wife is the agent authorized to manage my account and I am the agent authorized to manage her account. I usually do the accounts management for both of us, for example transferring money from the investments dividends once a quarter to our US bank and moving shares to keep our target asset allocation. It means that I don’t illegally have to log into her account to manage the investments. A couple of times a year we sit down together and she does the transfer of dividends and capital gain distributions out of our accounts into our bank so that she continues to be familiar with the process.

durham_lad

I think it works as you describe. When my wife and I set one another up as authorized agents over each other’s accounts then we were able to specify the levels of authority the agent would have. We gave each other complete authority over our accounts.

mrken30

In Fidelity the wording in slightly different. It's just called authorized access and you specify another user account that can have access. I think this is slightly different to having a CPA/agent managed an account.

I also have access to my wife's account so that I can legally contribute and buy/sell funds. These are my options. But I am thinking the US based agent/CPA/Financial adviser might be a good way to go. Thanks for this.