Larry's 2016 U.S. Tax Guide 'Supplement' for U.S. Expats, Green Card Holders and Non-Resident Aliens in User Friendly English. Laurence E. 'Larry'

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ thrown at the start to try to make things enjoyable. Included here, right at the start, though, is all you need to know as an overseas filer about what is ‘new’ this year. Yeah, there are some things different but why not put them right up front?

      A ‘real’ executive summary of the U.S. tax system – as it applies to expats (both citizens and green card holders) and non-residents with ‘reportable’ U.S. investments (WARNING: some of this writing is quite boring!)

      •What is income?

      •‘The’ executive summary for overseas U.S. tax return filer

      •FAQs

      •The 1040NR section

      FATCA and FBAR – some history, how these programs have evolved, what’s now happening, what does the future portend (including the OECD’s CRS scheduled for 2017) – Hey, there are actually two sections here – if I do say so, myself, this is some good writing!

      The forms you have to be aware of, living outside of the United States, cynically annotated but still boring!

      Schedule B, Part 3 of the 1040

      FinCEN 114

      926

      8938

      2555

      1116

      8965

      5471/8865

      8858/8858 Schedule M

      3520

      8621

      8832

      14653

      Capital gains and capital loss transactions – a refresher – before they change it and increase rates

      Penalties, interest and the statute of limitations – Better to be aware of these – they truly can ruin you!

      Streamlined Procedures – take advantage of this while it lasts if you are eligible: this is as close as you’re ever going to get to an IRS amnesty!

      Returning to the United States after a lifetime overseas

      Expatriation as an alternative that you might seriously want to consider – especially if you are an overseas business person and have to endure the indignities of FATCA

      ‘Nine Essays from a Trans-Pacific Rock n Tax Man” - If you think that an autobiography of a bean counter is going to be boring, then you are in for a really big surprise!!!!!

      The introduction – for the seventh time I’m doing an introduction to a tax book.

      Am I tired of writing tax books? Yes and no – I’d love to write fiction but recognize a distinct lack of passion to drive me all the way through a piece of fiction. For the same reason, I’ll never amount to much of a musician in spite of my fondness for virtually every type of music, except, perhaps, Chinese opera. Regardless, or perhaps because of my not being able to fictionalize that which follows, I’m going to have fun writing this book, this year…….and I thank, in advance, those who are reviewing the text to make sure I don’t get myself in trouble.

      Well, well, well, here we go again – seven books, six of them in this series, and I am once again happy to say:

      Welcome, dear reader, to the 2016 Supplement edition of Larry's U.S. Tax Guide for Expats, Green Card Holders and Non-Resident Aliens - in User-Friendly English!

      This edition compliments and expands upon prior editions, providing that which you really have to know, now, but allowing you to refer to prior issues with essays covering different topics. This time around there’s a section specifically for the non-U.S. ‘person. It is being written specifically for that non-U.S ‘person’ – someone with investments in the United States - who has to report on an annual basis and is subject to some real pain-in-the-ass penalties if the return is not filed. With the exponential increase in expatriation from U.S. citizenship, many former U.S. citizens join others throughout the world in having U.S. investments for which that person just might have to file – we’ll go over it this time around – welcome to the book title!

      You guys out there, the readers of this are doing something very, very bold: you've actually purchased a book about the world's most confusing tax system. I am trying something equally as bold - to write a book that is readable! Now, my friends, go on and do something more bold than that: read the sections of this book that interest you.....you don't have to read the whole thing but read those sections that are applicable to you. You'll find it informative - I guarantee it! Well.....not really an iron-clad guarantee. If you do not find it informative, I'm not going to give you your money back!

      And so I begin…..I'm sitting at my desk in our leased apartment in Bangkok, just a few days before the Chinese Lunar New Year – the Year of the Monkey – begins. A couple of years ago I started writing while at home in Guangzhou, PRC, vowing at that time never to write in the Guangzhou winter. I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, envious of the old farts who abandoned NYC for the warmth of Miami during winter. As I write this book, today, it is 30 degrees (Celsius) outside, with the sun shining in Bangkok. It is 11 degrees back home in Guangzhou. Down south my fingers don’t feel as if they are going to fall off from pounding the keyboard in my Guangzhou study. Irving Berlin wrote in his introductory lyrics to “White Christmas” that he was yearning to be up north…..not me, my friends, I like being south – Bangkok is my Miami now that I am certifiably an old fart!

      This year, the U.S. Congress didn’t screw up at all – how could they when they just didn’t do anything? Another year of divided government and nothing but nothing was accomplished. Who benefits? We do! We really don’t have to learn anything new this year! Remember that ‘fiscal cliff’ warning of a few years back? It was as ultimately meaningless as the Y2K scare at the turn of the century. But there are financial problems out there; no one will deny that. And is there any coherent tax directional responsibility being taken by Congress or the President? In essence, no, thereby giving the IRS free reign to go where they have boldly never gone before, without anyone truly objecting. I don’t like much of what they are doing and seriously disagree with what they have enacted but will never disregard it – the law is the law is the law……and we’ve got to comply.

      I will never retire! The word ‘retirement’ is simply not part of my vocabulary. I don’t look for the ‘orthodox’ type of tax work ‘business’, anymore – after 49 years of doing it, enough is enough! There are far, far better things to do with my life. Yet I feel like Al Pacino in Godfather 3: Just when I thought I could get out, they pull me back in.

      I have no will power and continue to get involved in those ‘interesting’ IRS tax audits/cases that other professional firms turn down because of 'fear': the fear of getting involved in situations that were essentially without precedent; the fear, perhaps, of being sued for choosing an approach to take in that audit/tax case that, in retrospect, might not have been the wisest of approaches to take. Yes, you should work with a specialist – if you can find one. But if you have to do it yourself, go ahead and write to the IRS! My advice to you all: DON'T BE AFRAID! The IRS is empowered by Congress to collect revenues but it is not funded adequately by that same Congress that empowers them to do the funding. The sad fact of the matter is that the IRS is never СКАЧАТЬ