Mark Nestmann's Contributions

The IRS seems to be putting the infamous FATCA statute into effect two years early. It’s already withholding 30% of all U.S. income generated from U.S. securities accounts owned by non-resident aliens (NRA). That’s only supposed to begin happening in two years.

Brazilian-born Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin relinquished his U.S. citizenship late last year. As an expatriate, Saverin must pay an “exit tax” on the value of any unrealized gains in his worldwide estate, less a $636,000 exclusion for 2011.

Sometimes people ask what I fear most. My answer isn’t really what they expect. It’s not riots in central cities, a collapse of food supplies or other essential infrastructure, a terrorist attack, or even the growing U.S. police state.

If you’re a U.S. citizen or long-term permanent resident (“green card” holder), you have a unique responsibility: you must pay tax on your worldwide income, even if you live outside the United States. Not to mention capital gains tax, gift tax, and estate tax.

A growing number of Americans are frustrated with the way in which their economy has been managed and are becoming increasingly concerned about future measures the governement may take to keep its coffers full.

Last November, President Obama said that the United States has become “lazy” about attracting foreign investment, and suggested the government should become “more aggressive” to attract overseas dollars. Well, Mr. President, I have several suggestions. First, repeal the notorious Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which will impose a 30% withholding tax on many money transfers out of the United States when it comes into effect in 2014. .After all, if people are investing in the United States, they might want to be able to get their money back out at some future point.

One of the responsibilities that must keep President Obama awake at night is to keep track of exactly who America’s enemies really are. Fortunately, he has a government agency to rely on for that purpose—the intrepid bureaucrats at the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

FATCA imposes a 30% withholding tax on many types of U.S-source income and gross sales proceeds to what the law calls “foreign financial institutions” (FFIs) and “non-financial foreign entities” (NFFEs). FATCA’s withholding provisions will be phased in beginning Jan. 1, 2014 and come fully into effect one year later.

Since the beginning of 2011, nearly one out of every four purchasers of real estate in the Phoenix area has been a foreigner. Wealthy Chinese and Indian investors, among others, regularly visit the area, sometimes in “real estate investment tours.”

The United States is one of only two countries, and the only major country, that taxes its citizens, no matter where they live. If you haven’t lived in the United States in decades, you must pay tax on your worldwide income as if you never left. Even “accidental” U.S. citizens born overseas with at least one U.S. parent, who never set foot in the United States, must file U.S. tax returns.

Approximately seven million U.S. citizens live overseas. And while most of them don’t realize it, they’re subject to the same U.S. tax and reporting obligations as any other U.S. citizen.

Are you one of the seven million U.S. citizens or green card holders living abroad? If you are, the IRS has a simple message: We’re looking for you.

Passports are a relatively modern invention. Until about a century ago, entering one country didn't generally require official proof of citizenship or nationality in another one. However, today, governments increasingly use passports as a means of restricting travel for numerous reasons. For instance, U.S. citizens can be denied a passport simply for owing money to the IRS or in child support payments. Even U.S. citizens living abroad must pay tax on their worldwide income. If they fail to do so, the government can decline to renew their passport.