Thought I would pass this on. This morning I received a phone call from a non-US citizen who does NOT live in the U.S.
The purpose of the call was to ask me whether I would be willing to be the executor of her will.
My answer:
No, under no circumstances should you, as a non-U.S. resident, EVER appoint a U.S. citizen as executor. Among other things, this would give signing authority over bank accounts, etc. She thanked me for NOT inflicting my “contamination on her”. (Now that she knows of my “contamination of U.S. citizenship”, I will probably never hear from her again.) U.S. citizenship coupled with Mr. FBAR is bad for your social life!
How would you have answered her question?
It’s one thing to not have you as executor, but to never hear from her again? You don’t think enough of yourself, as people in their relationships often overlook handicaps. The upside is that yours is curable, you just need to CLN (Cure Leprous Nationality) and quarantine yourself for awhile.
That being said, it could not have felt good to be called contaminated. I believe that USP’s now have a moral obligation to disclose their defect to unsuspecting Canadians and it was decent of you to have done so.
Isn’t it nice being exceptional?
A federal appeals court has refused to lift an injunction by a lower court against the Internal Revenue Service’s tax preparer regulation regime.
In a brief ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled Wednesday, “Upon consideration of the motion for stay pending appeal, the opposition thereto, and the reply, it is ordered that the motion for stay be denied. Appellants have not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending appeal.” The ruling effectively means that the IRS’s requirements for mandatory testing and continuing education of all tax preparers remains suspended.
In January, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that the IRS lacked the statutory authority to impose its Registered Tax Return Preparer regime after three tax preparers filed suit challenging the requirements (see Court Rules IRS Doesn’t Have the Authority to Regulate Tax Preparers). The trio of independent tax preparers—Sabina Loving of Chicago, John Gambino of Hoboken, N.J., and Elmer Kilian of Eagle, Wis.—were represented by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian law firm in Arlington, Va.
Read more
http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Appeals-Court-Refuses-Lift-Injunction-IRS-Tax-Preparer-Regulatio-66179-1.html?ET=webcpa:e6881:430732a:&st=email
sad but true : http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Bankrupt-Dionne-Warwick-Owes-10-mn-in-Taxes-66170-1.html
@USCitizenAbroad,
Your answer was the only ethical one you could give — and your answer educated one more person to the incredulity of ‘there is nothing normal about being a US Person in a country other than the US’. We can’t help out with normal things like being executors of wills.
That means I can’t ask my own children. What has the US done to family life?
Would I be wrong to say “OK” since I have renounced and have my CLN to prove that I am no longer American. Or would it be better to simply avoid it altogether?
Here is the issue: the person who becomes executor must reveal the private details of the financial accounts of the estate. This can do little damage “legal” damage, but it does open up the estate to financial crimes such as identity theft. No one, not least of all a foreign and hostile government that is in desperate financial situation should ever have such private details.
But the more likely problem is for the US person executor. He may become liable for FBAR penalties on accounts, but not be able to legally draw from the accounts in order to pay the fines. That would be a real pickle, and it is reminiscent of some of the financial horror stories that executors face, such as when they become, because of mistakes made, personally liable for the debts of the estate. Such happened to none other than Thomas Jefferson, who became a pauper late in life because he had paid out inheritances before settling the debts of the estate.
What about the reverse situation: a non-US person (a Canadian) being executor of the will of a US citizen (all resident here in Canada)?
I should have mentioned that the USC above is a dual Canadian-US citizen (Canadian born).
@Noble dreamer, you brought the same point that concerns me: will former U.S. persons continue to still face discrimination even after receiving a CLN and filing an 8854?
I wouldn’t put it past Congress to pass legislation restoring filing and reporting obligations (even retroactively) or perhaps forcing new renunciants to file for ten more years, etc. This could make people wary of having an American, even a former U.S. person, as an executor.
All wills direct the executor to pay off all debts etc. Could a person specifically request in the will that the executor does not file estate info for the US as they are no longer a US citizen??