Were you born in the USA? Do you own a US passport? Have you lived in the USA? Have you worked in the USA? If you answer yes to any or all of these questions, it is highly likely you are a US Connected person.
Jennie Poate at at Ark Capital, a company of Independent Financial Advisers specialising in wealth preservation and management, tax, financial and succession planning, explains what US Connected persons in France need to know and what help is available.
Issues Facing US Connected Persons
The investment and retirement planning needs of US connected persons are complex, multifaceted and need special care, review and planning from a team of expert and joined up advisers. This includes finance, tax and investment specialists.
What FATCA Means
Since the implementation of FATCA in 2014 (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act), sourcing retirement and investment solutions for US Connected Persons has become increasingly problematic. This is because most investment solutions in many countries do not comply with US tax law. You may have noticed the number of banks and financial institutions who no longer deal with US connected persons. You may even have been affected.
The problem is as simple as opening your US passport then looking at item D on the inside cover which reads: “All US citizens working and residing abroad are required to file and report on their worldwide income”.
More than $1trillion is held by over 10 million US persons outside the USA. Many don’t even realise they need to file compliant US tax returns. If your affairs are not structured correctly and if you do not report ALL income, including investment income, correctly you will be in breach of US tax law and have the IRS to deal with.
How to hold your Assets
Many investment options available in Europe to US Connected Persons will automatically put them in contravention of the US tax regime. For instance, one of the more tax efficient options in France of an Assurance Vie creates some very serious taxation issues in the US and may result in severe financial costs.
But you don’t need to lose sleep over this issue. There are solutions for US Connected Persons using fully regulated Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investment managers and partners. These solutions provide well priced, US and Current Country tax compliant and flexible options to assist with US tax reporting requirements and investment goals.
Investment Options
You should start with an in-depth meeting to ascertain your investment goals and objectives and build a portfolio of assets that meets your exact criteria and can cover the whole spectrum of risk. We work with leading fund managers we trust because of their consistent long term risk graded investment performance, US compliant investment models, SEC regulation and IRS tax reporting. All vital to help you achieve your financial goals and objectives.
Reporting to the IRS
The IRS requires annual returns – in the official IRS format. Our investment and platform partners provide everything you need to be compliant. It’s a simple and easy solution to a complex and potentially life changing problem. They can also pass this information direct to the IRS saving your time and effort.
More Complex Situations
Tax can sometimes be complicated and confusing. Our top tax firms and lawyer partners will help unravel any issues or even glitches that may have occurred over many years. They understand both US and current country issues.
Retirement Planning
Though it’s possible for non-resident US Connected Persons to fund domestic US pensions, there are a number of issues which mostly revolve around the tax treatment for those in this group.
But there are ways to resolve this problem and be compliant and tax efficient, even if you one day return to the USA. There are some differences in pension solutions – for instance one solution offers no upper limit to pension contributions and may be accessed from the age of 50, unlike pensions in the USA. This structure also offers greater scope for making significant pension contributions and benefitting from Tax-free growth.
An annual accounting statement will be produced for your US tax filing (Forms 8938 and FBAR need to be filed) keeping you fully compliant with US tax laws.
Returning to the US
It’s really important that your pension and/or investment can be transferred should you wish to return to the US. So make sure the investment managers you work with are all SEC regulated (as all ours are) and have US qualified advisers (as we do) so that should you need to, you can transfer your assets problem-free.
