As indicated in my last post, the Australian Treasury is seeking submissions on priorities for updating Australia’s tax treaty network. Fix the Tax Treaty! has made a submission. This post explains what you can do to help.
Continue reading “Treasury Submission”Tag: PFIC
Investment Constraints 5: Final Thoughts
In this series we’ve discussed how Australian investments impact a US tax return. To finish up, this post will discuss the pros and cons of investing directly in the US as well as a quick discussion of the types of records you should be keeping to assist with US tax preparation.
This is the final installment in our series of posts discussing the ways US tax laws constrain the investment choices of US taxpayers living in Australia. This post covers investing in the US and what records should be kept. These are the areas we have covered in all five posts in this series:
- Superannuation
- Homeownership
- Real Estate
- Australian Managed Funds
- Australian Shares
- Business Ownership Structures
- Investing in the US
- Record keeping
This series (and everything on this website) is general information only. I am not a lawyer, tax professional, or financial planner, just someone who has learned about US tax and wants to pass on general knowledge. Many areas of tax law are interdependent, so changes in one area may have unintended consequences in another. You should consult a professional who can consider your own personal circumstances before taking any action. Continue reading “Investment Constraints 5: Final Thoughts”
Investment Constraints 3: Equity
60% of Australians own equity based investments (listed or non-listed) outside of institutional superannuation accounts, and 37% of Australians own listed shares (2017 ASX Australian Investor Study). There are two main ways to invest in equity – purchase shares directly on the share market or purchase a slice of a portfolio managed by a professional portfolio manager. For Australian investors who are claimed by the US, the US tax implications of these two choices are quite different.
This is the third instalment in our series of posts discussing the ways US tax laws constrain the investment choices of US taxpayers living in Australia. These are the areas we will be covering:
- Superannuation
- Homeownership
- Real Estate
- Australian Managed Funds
- Australian Shares
- Business Ownership Structures
- Investing in the US
- Record keeping
This series (and everything on this website) is general information only. I am not a lawyer, tax professional, or financial planner, just someone who has learned about US tax and wants to pass on general knowledge. Many areas of tax law are interdependent, so changes in one area may have unintended consequences in another. You should consult a professional who can consider your own personal circumstances before taking any action. Continue reading “Investment Constraints 3: Equity”
When Tax Professionals Disagree
Walter B. Wriston (former CEO of Citicorp): “All the Congress, all the accountants and tax lawyers, all the judges, and a convention of wizards all cannot tell for sure what the income tax law says.”
Applying US tax law to “foreign” legal structures is problematic.1 This is one of the great frustrations of trying to comply with the US system of citizenship based taxation (and one of the reasons why this extraterritorial application of US law should be carefully considered by all countries who negotiate tax treaties with the US). Inevitably there will be differences of opinion as to how US law applies to particular foreign income or taxes – and these differences will lead to different US tax treatment of the same or similar items. There may be no single “right” answer, and we (or the tax professional we have hired) will have to choose how to interpret US tax law to determine our US tax liability on our foreign (home) income. Understanding how our local law meshes with the structures defined in the US tax code is the first step.
In Australia, we have two advantages relative to much of the rest of the world (especially those which are not part of the Commonwealth). First, our laws are written in English. While there are several Aussie colloquialisms that differ in meaning from American English, our laws and other formal writing are written in language that is mostly the same as US English (with a few extra vowels here and there, and the occasional “zed” that has been replaced by an “s”). Second, our legal system is derived from the British system, so many of the underlying principles are at least similar between the two countries. Even so, there are differences.