dfrbrowne

Hello all,

Thanks in advance the forum has been a great help in planning our move so far.

Question about share dividends.
I have a small amount of shares from UK institution (Standard Life) from when they de-mutualised. My yearly dividends are reinvested to buy more shares. The value of the dividends is not much at all, less then £50 a year?

Is this income something I would need to declare on A US tax return? If so is it worth keeping them or should I just sell them before moving over.

Also is this a potential issue?
As an L2 visa holder I need to apply for permission to work once I am resident and understand this can take up to 90 days.
As I am self employed here in the UK as a graphic designer, I have customers who I can do work for in those first 90 days, all via email etc, for example design a brochure, send it to the printer, printer delivers it to the client. I send an invoice via email and this is paid into my UK account.

How to I declare this income, do I pay tax on it both to the US and Uk government?

civilservant

You cannot do ANY work, regardless of where you are paid, until you have your EAD.

penguinsix

"Where the work is performed" is the key, not "where the money is deposited" or "where the client is based" but, basically "where your bum is situated when you do the work".

As such, you will need a visa to perform this work in the United States.

As for tax issues, all worldwide income, no matter where it is from is to be reported to the United States. Your dividends will be reported to the US, the income from any work (legal or illegal) needs to be reported (hint: perform the illegal work and you have a problem with the immigration people, perform the work and don't report the income on your US taxes, and then you also have a problem with the IRS).

Flabound oneday

the good news is the tax year here is the calendar year, so you wont need to worry about paying tax on income in 2014 for a good while....its probably worth getting a local cpa to do your taxes, especially if you intend doing business here via a company.


the work question is an interesting one as its very similar to when people come on vacation and answer emails, phone calls etc ......laptops, iphones ,tablets have opened up the world...you have to doubt if most people don't slightly bend the rules at some time....

you might get lucky and get your EAD quicker,

Pulaski

Tax is due to the US IRS on all work performed in the US no matter whether it is performed by someone authorized to work, or even if the work is legal to perform. Tax is can and is assessed on illegal immigrants, and there have been cases of prostitutes and drug dealers prosecuted for failing to declare and pay tax on income from their business activities, no matter that those activities are unlawful.

Whatever else you decide to do, do not compound the problem by failing to pay the taxes due to Uncle Sam!

dfrbrowne

I think I will just look forward to a 90 day vacation/acclimatisation to the US.

Flabound oneday

to be honest you will be surprised how many little bits and pieces there are to do...all the running around etc.....Mrs FB took the best part of 6 months getting 'settled'