Consider this a public service reminder 🙂
The IRS periodically sends sends out a Newswire by email that you can subscribe to, if you dare!
Today I received the following email notice – IR-2013-54. I have been searching the email to find a direct link to the message it contained. So far, all I have found are “broken links”, but I have not found a specific one with this information. (I did not engage in an exhaustive search, so if anyone else finds the link, please post it in comments, and I will update.)
Update: Direct IRS link as provided by MarkPinetree. Thanks
I decided to reproduce the email message here with emphasis which is mine. Some Brockers have already seen this, but for those that haven’t, this is the ‘W’ component of my CCW acquiescence – Comply, Complain and WARN. 🙂
You can send this to your friends who might think they want a U.S. Green card, or voluntarily want to join the US Tax, Form and Penalty Club. Appropriate heading might be: “Buyer Beware: Why You Might Want to Reconsider That Green Card or Citizenship Choice.”
Whether or not you decide to send this to U.S. Citizens (including dual citizens) residing abroad that are still doing “The Ostrich” with their heads in the sands about what the IRS is demanding is your decision to make. Please don’t consider me an IRS co-enabler here. LOL I am not advising what to do, I am just passing on the “demand notice”.
WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service reminds U.S. citizens and resident aliens, including those with dual citizenship who have lived or worked abroad during all or part of 2012, that they may have a U.S. tax liability and a filing requirement in 2013.
The filing deadline is Monday, June 17, 2013, for U.S. citizens and resident aliens living overseas, or serving in the military outside the U.S. on the regular due date of their tax return. Eligible taxpayers get two additional days because the normal June 15 extended due date falls on Saturday this year. To use this automatic two-month extension, taxpayers must attach a statement to their return explaining which of these two situations applies. See U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad for additional information additional information on extensions of time to file.
Nonresident aliens who received income from U.S. sources in 2012 also must determine whether they have a U.S. tax obligation. The filing deadline for nonresident aliens can be April 15 or June 17 depending on sources of income. See Taxation of Nonresident Aliens on IRS.gov.
Federal law requires U.S. citizens and resident aliens to report any worldwide income, including income from foreign trusts and foreign bank and securities accounts. In most cases, affected taxpayers need to fill out and attach Schedule B to their tax return. Certain taxpayers may also have to fill out and attach to their returnForm 8938, Statement of Foreign Financial Assets.
Part III of Schedule B asks about the existence of foreign accounts, such as bank and securities accounts, and usually requires U.S. citizens to report the country in which each account is located.
Generally, U.S. citizens, resident aliens and certain nonresident aliens must report specified foreign financial assets on Form 8938 if the aggregate value of those assets exceeds certain thresholds. Instructions for Form 8938 explain the thresholds for reporting, what constitutes a specified foreign financial asset, how to determine the total value of relevant assets, what assets are exempted and what information must be provided.
Separately, taxpayers with foreign accounts whose aggregate value exceeded $10,000 at any time during 2012 must file Treasury Department Form TD F 90-22.1. This is not a tax form and is due to the Treasury Department by June 30, 2013. For details, see Publication 4261: Do You Have a Foreign Financial Account? Though this form can be filed on paper, Treasury encourages taxpayers to file it electronically.
Taxpayers abroad can now use IRS Free File to prepare and electronically file their returns for free. This means both U.S. citizens and resident aliens living abroad with adjusted gross incomes (AGI) of $57,000 or less can use brand-name software to prepare their returns and then e-file them for free.
Taxpayers with an AGI greater than $57,000 who don’t qualify for Free File can still choose the accuracy, speed and convenience of electronic filing. Check out the e-file link on IRS.gov for details on using the Free File Fillable Forms or e-file by purchasing commercial software.
A limited number of companies provide software that can accommodate foreign addresses. To determine which will work best, get help choosing a software provider. Both e-file and Free File are available until Oct. 15, 2013, for anyone filing a 2012 return.
Any U.S. taxpayer here or abroad with tax questions can use the online IRS Tax Mapto get answers. An International Tax Topic Index page was added recently. The IRS Tax Map assembles or groups IRS forms, publications and web pages by subject and provides users with a single entry point to find tax information.
We should look into a boycott until they clean house,if congress does not do it.
We must take the black boots away from these guys and remind them who they work for,we the tax payers.
Arguably, it is a violation of the doctrines of dual nationality to tax a person who is living in the country of his/her non-US citizenship. Thus, on the basis of international law, such taxation is illegal. The IRS is a human rights abuser, both against the people living in the United States as can be seen from recent scandals, and against its “citizens” abroad. On the international doctrines of dual nationality, see here and related posts.
Mr. Olenick, they work not for the taxpayer, but for the electorate. That’s an important distinction, since so many voters don’t pay taxes. Besides, many of readers of Isaac Brock are not legitimate taxpayers or voters. We are just innocent victims of the human rights violations by the IRS.
Finally they are giving some attention to Americans Living and Working Abroad. Now they must go further and decrease the draconian penalties that applies to us and nobody else. And they have an International toll fee number (preferably more than one) for us to call for help. And they must make easy for us to communicate with the Congressmen from the last State we lived in the USA. Better yet, allow us to have a representative in the Congress. Before ending, do not penalize some of us who live in countries that have no tax treaties with the USA. It is not our fault.
There was a comment or post about the US’s new immigration policy that spoke of basically allowing immigrants coming into “compliance” for green card apps to basically file back taxes and presumably FBARS too but without worrying about fines or even whether or not they reported everything. I think that duals and expats should begin asking for that deal. It’s only fair.
But I wondered about the reason behind this. It was stated that it was impossible for the USG to keep track or discover all the missing information. If they can’t track the income of illegal immigrants that are sitting in the homeland, can they really gather and sort info on everyone outside the country? Especially those duals who have virtually no USP indicators?
Something isn’t adding up.
New Bulletin IR-2013-54: IRS Reminds Those with Foreign Assets of U.S. Tax Obligations
I’m not yet up-to-speed on this topic, but I’ll read up later today or tomorrow. There is some rather interesting activity going on at the EnglishForum.ch, such as the latest discussion here:
http://www.englishforum.ch/finance-banking-taxation/177701-us-taxes-tips-info-beyond-feie.html
To make the the long story short, my view on double-taxation is this:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/double-taxation.html
Here is the latest response to my view on double-taxation which is supported by the business dictionary, among many other dictionaries:
The business dictionary on double-taxation is “paranoid”? “illogical additions”? I must be ignored? I’m not a “regular” folk? Notice how I’ve been made to appear disliked and am thus generally at odds with Americans who post there.
When discussing other conflicts, I encountered the internet warrior who goes great lengths to defend a certain government position. With the EnglishForum.ch, I’m beginning to suspect a similar pattern.
In that particular thread, I asked some simple but less known questions concerning proper tax-filing, and the reaction has been, well, very interesting!
@MarkPinetree, in the EnglishForum.ch, I just argued:
The American response in Switzerland seems to be:
Granted, I personally don’t think that it makes any sense for Americans abroad to be troubled with double-taxation. Yet, if more samples, demonstrations, templates and such to make it simple and free to file accurate US returns is considered to be so horrible, as suggested, then I suppose that “draconian penalties” is the only thing that is desired!
Are we fighting a lost struggle, wanting the best against the interests of those we are seeking to help?
@swisspinoy,
Deja vu of the ExpatForum many of us first met at — see http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2012/01/12/expat-tax-forum-hijacked/, the reason we, today, are able to have our conversations at Isaac Brock.
@calgary411, yes I joined IBS shortly afterwards, so got some exposure to that 🙂
Each time I read “aliens” the bile rose to my throat. I wonder how many weeks?, months?, years? before my so-called “alien” life is consumed by IRS hellfire. I know now that the USCIS will never acknowledge the I-407 which I sent them over a year ago (when I learned of its existence) and which I back dated to the mid 1990s (when I returned to Canada). Since I can never officially dump my “alien” status (I only had one green card and now the USCIS has it) I will proceed as “formerly a resident alien” as we have written on my husband’s married filing jointly 1040s since the mid 1990s. (He now files a married filing separately 1040. I file nothing.) The IRS never challenged my asserted “non-resident” status so as far as I’m concerned I am nobody’s “alien” of any kind. I was, am, and always will be a Canadian, nothing else. I do not feel that I owe the USA any paperwork and they won’t get any paperwork from me. My husband will continue with his paperwork until he finally renounces. (He is still waiting for Canadian citizenship.) If the Canadian government betrays us then I will have to deal with that when it happens. Now, with the Sword of Damocles permanently installed over my head, I can do nothing more than wait to see if it falls. I will try to mentally prepare for a retirement lived in prison and/or poverty. That’s it. The timing of your warning/reminder, Just Me, is ironic because this morning we got the big box out and will sit down this afternoon to do my husband’s 1040 and FBAR. You made a cold and snowy , paperwork burdened day even more depressing, Just Me. Thank you kindly. 🙁
You see, in some countries the American citizen abroad do not pay USA tax on their pensions in the country of residence. In others the American Abroad pays USA tax on this pension because the two countries do not have a tax treaty, Is this fair?
Considering the IRS letter, Free File Fillable Forms does now indeed allow one to enter in their country. I was also unable to find a statement stating that expats cannot use it. This is different from last year, where it was only usuable for stateside Americans.
However, I did notice something different. My account was deleted! I have a copy of a password reminder from 19.07.2012, yet now my account is gone. I was able to recreate the account using the exact same username and email address, though, so I haven’t been banned from the system (yet). I won’t be able to use it, though, since they don’t do 1040NR
So, in addition to the many other things that could be said about this “notice”
1)It has just been released (well past the regular filing deadline)
2)It says that those living overseas can have an “automatic” extension of 2 months (good, since the first deadline is well past) but must “attach a statement to their return explaining which of these two situations applies” (first I heard of that requirement).
3) Goes on to encourage e filing
BUT having just gone through this for my own tax forms and my son’s, the “free file fillable forms” don’t have the capacity of includng attachments. It even says so in the list of known limitations. I don’t know about the other freefile programs, as we could not make any sense of them in our circumstances, but I doubt they can have attachments either.
Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing? Does the right hand even know what the right hand is doing?
Paranoid, illogical additions? That doesn’t seem called for, especially to request samples, demonstrations, and templates in order to comply with a scheme that already seems pretty draconian as it is.
I don’t think Swisspinoy is any more paranoid and illogical for making such a statement than I am for getting separate bank accounts so that the IRS can stay out of my Canadian wife’s financial business.
@MarkPinetree
Thanks for the link. I have updated appropriately.
@Em
Sorry to depress! I have to get to work on my FBARs too, so I am there with you. 🙁
@ Just Me
It’s okay. We just finished (1040 and FBAR) and now the sun is shining, melting the snow from this morning so that’s good at least. We used to feel relief at this point but now it’s anxiety tainted relief. We used to just regular mail the 1040 and FBAR in but now we’re thinking that isn’t very safe so I’ll ask at the post office tomorrow to see if it’s possible to put a tracker on a letter sent to a P.O. Box.
Em, I used registered mail which required a signature card to come back to me for my FBARs (at an additional cost, of course — but at least I had something). Things I’ve tried to track seem to have lost their tracking as soon as they crossed the border, but that might work.
@ calgary411
I used registered mail for my I-407 but they ignored the signature card taped onto the back of the envelope — never got it back. Fortunately I took a screen shot of the e-tracking record which showed when it arrived and who signed for it. After that it must have gone into their dustbin. I’ll see what our nice post mistress can come up with for the 1040 and FBAR. Nothing’s ever easy when the IRS is involved. This year we put in 28 hours of forced labour for them. I should but don’t include my daily reading at Brock into that total because it’s voluntary not imposed.
Em, how long has your husband been waiting on citizenship? I get discouraged by the estimated wait times (I think it’s 25 months now) but it’s been less than a year since I got acknowledgement that they received my app and I check the cic on a whim the other day to discover – to my surprise – that I’ve gone from “received” to “we started processing in early March”. I have no idea what the actual process times are for cut/dried apps. It is maddening b/c the PR app was everything but nude pics. How much more could they possible need to know?
@mjh49783, yep, I segregated my finances from that of my spouse simply so that the IRS won’t get suspicious about undeclared income originating from a non-resident alien spouse not living in America!
@ Yoga Girl
My husband has been waiting 13 months so far. At the time he sent in his application the waiting period was said to be “up to 18 months”. You are correct that now they say it can take up to 2 years. The CIS website says they are “processing” his application too. We were hoping for a July 1st celebration but realistically it will probably happen in the Fall. He really wants to go into 2014 as a Canadian. He doesn’t have to take the citizenship test so that should help a bit. BTW, loving your comments here at Brock. So happy you found us.
Em, lucky him that he doesn’t have to take the test. I’ve been looking at the immigration boards and it seems that once you are being processed the wait between that and taking the test is 2 to 4 months, so I am hoping to hear about my test date in the next month or so. It’s been 10 months so far, fingers crossed.
And thanks about the comments. Trying my best to be helpful.
I wonder if Pritzker filed a truthful and complete FBAR…
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/23/congressional-source-on-pritzker-nomination-theres-a-certain-level-of-hypocrisy/?hpt=hp_bn3