241–250 of 358 posts
I am an international tax lawyer and this stuff is my day job. Consider this comment an AMA. For smaller companies, the bureaucratic cost of international tax systems is insane. For US citizens abroad ... I will just say that my biggest area of growth is helping people shed their US citizenship and tax paperwork/penalties is the number 1 reason. Anyway. If you are in a position like The One and Only Netai -- or don't…
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Who said we didn't get professional lawyers and CPA's?
if you did then please name them so I know not to use them. Hiring employees in other states should be bread and butter for any tax accountant working with businesses.
Nitai was just aghast that the laws were so strange.
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Thanks for the response. I was interested in renouncing my citizenship once I've obtained citizenship elsewhere; I should have included that in my post.
I heard that to renounce your citizenship you need to pay some one time tax on cash and valuables you own.
"Still, leaving America can have a special tax cost. To exit, you generally must prove 5 years of tax compliance in the U.S. Plus, if you have a net worth greater than $2 million or have average annual net income tax for the 5 previous years of $155,000 or more (that’s tax, not income), you pay an exit tax."
"The theory of the exit tax is that is the last chance the U.S. has of taxing you. It is a capital gain tax as if you sold your property when you left. At least there’s an exemption of $668,000."
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Thanks so much for doing this! Here's my situation: I've been working on a pretty successful project with a friend (selling eBooks), and we're thinking about incorporating (up to now we've been taking in income separately through our own personal companies). Given that I live in Japan, and he lives in Australia, does it make more sense to incorporate in the U.S., in one of those two countries, or somewhere else (Hong…
I think the question of where you incorporate depends on two factors. First is citizenship. Are you (or your friend) U.S. citizens? If so you have a bunch of tax hobbles that will slow you down. Second is where your customers are. This is both a tax question (you want to pay less tax) and a business question (you want to collect more money more easily). If you need Stripe or its equivalent, you dance to the tune they…
And I hear you about not over-thinking this. But even if we want to choose the simplest route, it's still not obvious which solution to pick just yet…
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Unfortunately, it is nowhere near so simple in the US, and they have no regard for expats. The US treats its expats worse than any other country in the world. The forms are atrocious. And I could go on about being taxed heavily for services I don't use. As a U.S. expat, I haven't noticed this. The forms aren't as easy as the Danish forms (which are fully automatic and done for you), but not too complex in my situatio…
You are one of the lucky few. :-) Be sure not to invest your savings in mutual funds. Form 8621. Be sure to avoid the local equivalent of an IRA if you want to do retirement savings. The IRS might not think it is a tax-free pension. And they might think that employer contributions are taxable income to you. Don't own stock in a foreign corporation. Don't become an officer with signature power over the corporation's b…
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Supposing one does not want a second citizenship and is willing to renounce their US citizenship entirely, which country would you recommend switching to? How difficult is it and what are the consequences?
For what it's worth - Derek Sivers chose Singapore: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3944339 http://www.guidemesingapore.com/incorporation/introduction/s... AFAIK, you can always change to another country. However, I can't see the US taking it very lightly that you've denounced your citizenship. In other words, I would assume they would try to make your life a living hell if you wanted anything to do again in the…
I am an international tax lawyer and this stuff is my day job. Consider this comment an AMA. For smaller companies, the bureaucratic cost of international tax systems is insane. For US citizens abroad ... I will just say that my biggest area of growth is helping people shed their US citizenship and tax paperwork/penalties is the number 1 reason. Anyway. If you are in a position like The One and Only Netai -- or don't…
Thanks for doing this! I'm an American planning to live in Japan for 1-2 years starting later this year (I'll be studying the language and working for my existing small US business). I won't be working for (or, likely, doing any business with) Japanese companies. I assumed I'd be best off hiring an accountant who could take care of whatever inane forms come with paying taxes in this situation (I do also pay quarterly…
It was just a matter of filling a one-page form at the tax office. Filing tax was also very easy, I basically just went to city hall and they filed them for me.
So despite its reputation as a bureaucratic country, Japan turned out to be much better than France.
Of course, I can't help you with the U.S. side of things…
I am an international tax lawyer and this stuff is my day job. Consider this comment an AMA. For smaller companies, the bureaucratic cost of international tax systems is insane. For US citizens abroad ... I will just say that my biggest area of growth is helping people shed their US citizenship and tax paperwork/penalties is the number 1 reason. Anyway. If you are in a position like The One and Only Netai -- or don't…
It's something I've considered. As a now resident of Hong Kong, I was surprised - and delighted - with how incredibly easy it was to handle my taxes. Front-to-back, I could do the whole thing, including payment, in less than an hour and understand the whole system. Unfortunately, it is nowhere near so simple in the US, and they have no regard for expats. The US treats its expats worse than any other country in the wo…
Intuit spends a huge amount of money every year lobbying to make sure that tax forms are as complicated as possible: http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/27/turbotax-maker-funnels-mill...
So evil!!!
I really don't understand this fetishization of the US for business. If you want to be sued into utter oblivion and live on the streets with a nonexistent social safety net I guess it's all right. I'm in Ireland and if you want to start a real business (not some rinkydink app that mysteriously needs €30 million in funding so you can fail more spectacularly) the climate seems quite good.
If Europeans spent even half the time they spend complaining about America on building something useful, they wouldn't have to feel insecure in the first place.
I am an international tax lawyer and this stuff is my day job. Consider this comment an AMA. For smaller companies, the bureaucratic cost of international tax systems is insane. For US citizens abroad ... I will just say that my biggest area of growth is helping people shed their US citizenship and tax paperwork/penalties is the number 1 reason. Anyway. If you are in a position like The One and Only Netai -- or don't…