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U.S. citizens working overseas and foreign citizens considered residents have Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts reporting obligations if the total value of their foreign financial accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the year.
Form 8938: Specified Foreign Financial Assets must be filed with your client’s U.S. income tax return for foreign financial assets worth more than: (1) $50,000 on the last day of the taxable year or $75,000 at any time during the year, for an unmarried individual living inside the United States; or (2) $200,000 on the last day of the taxable year or $300,000 at any time during the year, for an unmarried individual living outside of the United States.
Form 3520: A U.S. beneficiary receiving $100,000 or more in gifts/bequests from a foreign individual is required to file this form by April 15 of the year following the gift. Otherwise, a 25 percent penalty of the total value of the gifts/bequests may result.
Form 5471: U.S. persons (including a citizen, resident alien, domestic partnership or corporation and a domestic trust or estate) who are officers, directors or shareholders of a foreign corporation must file this form if they own or acquire 10 percent of a foreign corporation’s shares.
A trust where U.S. laws don’t have jurisdiction and where a U.S. person isn’t a trustee makes a trust a foreign trust for U.S. tax purposes.
A foreign trust is treated and taxed as a U.S. person if there are U.S. beneficiaries or a U.S. grantor.
A foreign non-grantor trust with U.S. beneficiaries has distributable net income (DNI), which is subject to income tax whether the income was distributed or not.
Undistributed net income (UNI) will suffer “throwback rules,” which impose heavy penalties when income tax isn’t paid.
Foreign trusts can invest in tax-exempt income or manage investments for capital appreciation only to avoid throwback rules, although the trustee must remain mindful about its obligation to diversify investments.