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Foreign Investment Health Insurance in Malaysia & US Tax | US International Tax Lawyer

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Hello and welcome to Sherayzen Law Office video blog. My name is Eugene Sherayzen and I’m an International tax attorney and owner of Sherayzen Law Office, Ltd.

Today, I’m continuing my series of blogs from Santa Monica, California. The main theme from my blogs from Santa Monica is about US citizens who live outside of the United States. In the previous blog, I discussed the issue of foreign pension compliance and the dangers that these assets can bring to you.

Today, I’d like to discuss a different issue, probably somewhat unexpected for many US taxpayers – the issue of investment health insurance policies. These are extremely rare but they do exist. For example, in Malaysia. In Malaysia, they have investment health insurance policies; basically, a health insurance policy where part of your premium is being invested in PFICs (in a previous blog, I’ve already discussed what a PFIC is). As you need to cover your health costs, these investments are sold realizing for US tax purposes: PFIC gains and PFIC losses. The compliance concerning foreign investment health insurance policies can be extremely complex.

If you would like to learn more about it, you can contact me at (952) 500-8159 or you can email me: [email protected]

Thank you for watching, until the next time.

Foreign Life Insurance Policies & US Tax | FBAR and PFIC International Tax Lawyer

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Hello and welcome to Sherayzen Law Office video blog. My name is Eugene Sherayzen and I’m an International tax attorney and owner of Sherayzen Law Office, Ltd.

Today, I’m continuing my series of blogs from Santa Monica, California and these blogs are centered around one issue: US citizens moving to live overseas. In the previous blog, I discussed the issues concerning foreign pensions.

Today, I’d like to talk to you about a different issue: foreign life insurance policies. Many people are not aware of this fact but foreign life insurance policies are reportable assets for US tax purposes. Moreover, they may have real income tax consequences for US tax compliance, especially investment life insurance policies; those are the most dangerous – the so called unit-linked (ULIP) insurance policies because they are likely to be invested in PFICs. In the previous blog, I’ve already discussed what a PFIC is and why it is so dangerous.

Foreign financial advisors really love their clients investing in these types of assets. The reason being is that they are usually tax-exempt in local countries, so when foreign advisors advise about something like this, they do not take into consideration the fact that they are dealing with a US citizen and for this reason, they may end up getting their US clients in danger.

If you have foreign life insurance policies and you would like to know more about your US tax compliance required for these policies, contact me at (952) 500-8159 or you can email me at [email protected]

Thank you for watching, until the next time.

Foreign Pension Accounts: Dangers of Improper Tax Treatment | US International Tax Lawyer

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Hello and welcome to Sherayzen Law Office video blog. My name is Eugene Sherayzen and I’m an International tax attorney and owner of Sherayzen Law Office, Ltd.

Today, we are continuing our series of blogs from Santa Monica, California. In the previous blog, I mentioned that foreign pension accounts could be very dangerous for your US tax compliance and I’ve explained the main reasons for that. In this blog, I’d like to discuss an additional point about foreign pension accounts and that is the danger that stems from how they are being handled by US tax accountants when they file your US tax returns.

There are two types of potential problems:

  1. Your US tax accountant may have no idea how to handle US tax reporting requirements concerning foreign pensions. That is actually a very likely scenario. The issue of US tax requirements concerning foreign pensions is incredibly complex and for this reason, it is important to understand that your tax accountants may simply not know what they’re doing.
  2. Is the opposite of that, where tax accountants take the liberty of taking what they believe is the safest passage. For example, they may automatically treat a foreign pension account as a foreign trust and file Form 3520, potentially Form 3520-A. There is no harm in over-compliance. The problem arises when this advice was given in error and a client later-on fails to properly file these forms and these are not simple forms to file, so in that situation, basically he ends up with IRS penalties concerning foreign trust compliance even though he never had a foreign trust. I’ve had many cases where this was precisely what happened.

If you would like to learn more about your foreign pension compliance, you can call me at (952) 500-8159 or email me: [email protected]

Thank you for watching, until the next time.

US Tax Expats & Foreign Accounts: US Tax Compliance Implications | FBAR Tax Lawyer California

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Hello and welcome to Sherayzen Law Office video blog. My name is Eugene Sherayzen and I’m an International tax attorney and owner of Sherayzen Law Office, Ltd.

Today, I’m continuing my series of vlogs from Santa Monica, California. As you know, our theme for these vlogs is ‘US Citizens Living Outside of the United States’. If you move outside of the United States for work, there’s a pretty good chance that you may acquire a foreign pension account. It may seem innocent at first; it may seem as if everyone else is doing it but you have to be aware of the fact that foreign pension accounts can spell big trouble for US tax compliance. Not only could these pension accounts be taxable in the United States, but they may have special filing requirements because they could be considered foreign trusts, grantor trusts or non-grantor trusts, and all of these can trigger special US Information returns. I’ll be talking about US Information returns in another vlog but for now, you have to be aware (of) these potential requirements and noncompliance with these requirements can draw significant penalties. Again, this is an issue of income tax compliance and US Information tax compliance.

If you would like to learn more about your obligations with respect to foreign pension accounts you can call met at (952) 500-8159 or you can email me at [email protected]

Thank you for watching, until the next time.

PFIC Compliance & Moving Outside US | International Tax Lawyer & Attorney Santa Monica LA

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Hello and welcome to Sherayzen Law Office video blog. My name is Eugene Sherayzen and I’m an International tax attorney and owner of Sherayzen Law Office, Ltd.

Today, I’m continuing my series of vlogs from Santa Monica, California. The main theme of my vlog from Santa Monica is about US citizens moving to live outside of the United States. I’ve mentioned that there are special US International tax requirements that may apply to you as someone who is moving outside of the United States.

One of these topics that we need to discuss is a very complex US law concerning PFICs (passive foreign investment companies). PFICs is a unique law. I’ve dealt with clients from almost eighty countries and none of those eighty countries have laws similar to PFIC laws. Without getting into too much detail, basically a PFIC is an anti-deferral regime; meaning, that it is a disfavored type of investment. What is a PFIC? A PFIC is basically a foreign corporation that has passive assets which are in excess of 50% of their total assets or receipts of foreign income which is more than 75% of its total income. If 75% of its total income is passive income then it is considered to be a PFIC. The calculations are mind-boggling concerning default PFICs. There are many types of PFICs. Your tax compliance will be a lot more complex if you have them. If you move outside of the United States, a lot of times local financial advisors will advise you to into this mutual fund or that mutual fund or something else and in reality, these types of investments could get you into trouble.

If you would like to learn more about your PFIC compliance, you can contact me directly at (952) 500-8159 or you can email me at [email protected]

Thank you for watching, until the next time.