UPSButton

Hello everyone


I was hoping I might find a bit of advice here, or at least a friendly shove in the right direction with this situation (and FYI I am contemplating talking to a tax advisor if anyone has any good recommendations in the St.Pete/Tampa area...)


I am a dual citizen, born in the US and have lived since I was a child in the UK. I have limited tax filings in the US as my parents completed them for a while until I was about 20, but as I never saw myself returning to the US we all just kind of gave up after a while as we never earned enough to pay US and UK tax and no one asked us any questions when we stopped filing.


I have now found myself in a situation in my 30's where I am currently (as of June this year) half way residing between the US and UK, trying to decide if I want to stay out here with my US partner.


I own UK property (rented out) and have accounts/ISA/pension that would require a FBAR filing. I am also keen to go to study for an AS degree here in the US but am aware that I will suddenly have to officially start popping up on radars, where at the moment I am still able to be seen as 'traveling on holiday'.


Before I make my decision I need to learn about US tax and how this will impact me and my UK finances, because there is still the very real possibility I will want to go home (whether that be in 2 years or 20) and I don't want to open a whole can of worms I can't close.


Can anyone point me to a good place to start informing myself given my situation or has anyone been in a similar position to mine and can offer any advice?


Many thanks in advance!

Cook_County

You are already delinquent in tax return & FBAR filing and are demonstrating conduct that the IRS might regard as wilful. The IRS will already have your details from FATCA reporting. You may want a good professional adviser to assist.

Owen778

Without knowing income level and total account balances, you can't be sure of that, though it's true that the minimum level for both tax reporting and FBAR are pretty low.

But yes, there are quite a few implications for tax reporting. Some UK investments are a very bad idea for US citizens.

nun

The OP throws up many red flags.

You don't "halfway reside both places". There are residency rules. Obviously as a US citizen you are always taxed on your worldwide income by the US. Residency will affect your UK tax liability.

If you own a stocks and shares ISA you will have PFIC issues and back filing and paying the tax on those will be nasty.

The OP is probably already out of US tax compliance and should get this sorted asap.

A couple of good professionals are Liz Zitzow and Davide Treitel

Cook_County

The OP knew he was required to file - he admitted that in an open Internet forum - and indeed had previously filed. Unless he was seriously ill, an IRS agent would possibly take the view that deciding not to file was wilful, using the doctrine of wilful blindness.

Pulaski

I suspect that many US citizens overseas don't bother with tax returns, and in practice the chances of there being difficult and/ or expensive issues for the OP to resolve and tax arrears to pay are pretty slim unless the OP has $100k's of investments.

UPSButton

Thank you for some of your feedback, which is really truly terrifying.


I'd just like to say that I only became aware of the FBAR form about a week ago when I started looking into taxes in the US. I would guess more than anything I have been lazy regarding the tax filing but honestly, I have had nothing to do with the US apart from having accidentally been being born here and then taken out of the country when I was very young.


I am not wealthy by any means, I am just a normal person who has never earned more the £30,000 per year and nor ever had more than that in savings.


I'm just trying to work out what I'm supposed to do is all. Thank you for the names of the tax people, I shall look into them.

nun

There's two issues here: potential non-compliance with informational forms like FBAR and delinquent taxes. You probably won't owe any US tax on earned income or rental income in the past but a stocks and shares ISA and PFIC could be tricky.