A U.S. citizen who is treated as a resident of another country under an income tax treaty would still be required to file a Form 1040 (assuming his income meets the filing thresholds) and would still be subject to U.S. tax on his worldwide income (except to the extent one of the exceptions to the saving clause applies).The particular memo was issued with respect to Israel, but the general rule stated at the conclusion of the memo would seem to apply to other treaty countries with such a tie breaker rule as well. And, of course, with respect to countries without such treaty tie-breaker, the U.S. citizen is required to pay U.S. tax on worldwide income.
There seems to be nothing surprising here.
This application of these odious rules is one of the reasons why the United States has gained so much ill-will over the course of the Obama administration, partly as a result of its clamp down on foreign bank accounts and scaring the hell out of "US citizens" living in Canada and beyond. Furthermore, the application of extra-territorial taxation of Canadians is an attack on Canada. I've spoken to numerous Canadian residents with 100% Canadian generated income who have received horrendous tax bills from Obama's IRS. In what strange world does it make sense that the resident of one country owes taxes to his birth-country only because he was born there? Welcome to the weird world of Eritrea. This destroys the ability of "American" Canadian to have savings.
ReplyDeletePlease, I ask the United States to join the civilized world and institute residential taxation and stop trying to punish your expats who decide, for reasons they don't have to explain to anyone, to live in other countries. It makes the United States look greedy, selfish, self-centered and parochial. The country with the most wealth, still, will try to tax the rest of the world. Isn't the United States a country of grown ups? Then, why do you look to Canada to expand your tax base?
Peter W. Dunn