Halloween’s over but America’s Internal Revenue Service is Scaring the Hell out of Delinquent Expats! The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is starting to make good on last year’s threat to begin the process of revoking or (or not renewing) U.S. passports as a means to collect unpaid taxes. With Donald Trump now in office, my money is on more stringent enforcement since he seems to … [Read more...]

TOKYO — Until recently, if you were a non-resident working in Japan, you could easily claim all your supposed over-seas dependents. However, the Japanese government has now become wise to the many shenanigans of those claiming outrageous numbers of family members, (sometimes to the tune of 10 to 15 dependents claimed). Until now the tax office has had no way to prove such claims and therefore was … [Read more...]

New Law for January 2016 This month the U.S. Congress is putting into effect a new law that empowers the government to revoke passports of citizens who refuse (or somehow neglect) to pay their taxes. According to various sources, this law also gives the U.S. State Department the right to deny tax scofflaws new passports. If you are in arrears to the tune of $50,000 or more, (including … [Read more...]

With a stroke of his executive pen on July 31 of this year, President Obama marked the end of the filing date discrepancy that had existed with foreign bank account reporting and the filing of income tax returns. In one fell swoop he signed into the law the “Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act”, which changed the filing due date of several important forms for … [Read more...]

It is no easy ride being a stranger in a strange land, let alone a foreigner who owns assets across multiple tax jurisdictions around the globe. The myriad of differences between various countries’ regulations often causes headaches for those who are faced with complex and often convoluted and confusing inheritance and estate tax issues. For foreigners who call Japan “home,” this certainly can be … [Read more...]

It seems that no American can avoid the United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS), even if he or she is a resident of Japan. All American expatriates who are living in Japan are required by law to file for taxes, regardless of where they live and even if they think they might not owe as much as a penny. Keep in mind that this does not necessarily mean that all Americans will end up owing money … [Read more...]

Japan is certainly an interesting country and, if you are a foreigner who has residence there, the experience is surely one that began with a bit of a cultural shock as there are so many differences in societal norms and in the living of simple, everyday life. Japan is unique in that it has both low birthrates (about 1.3 children per woman of child-bearing age) and astounding gains in life … [Read more...]

Congratulations! According to Japan’s tax agency, you might be too rich. Japan is implementing a new tax targeting those who are “wealthy” that is due to take effect by July this year. According to the wording of the legislation that will soon become law, (barring some kind of last-minute miracle), all who are considered by authorities to be permanent residents (and who own global financial … [Read more...]

If you own real estate in Canada, renting the properties out can be an effective way to make some money while you’re living abroad. The problem is the Canadian tax code can be a little strict when you’re a non-resident earning Canadian rental income. The good news is with some simple planning and paperwork you can minimize the taxes on your rental income so more of it stays in your … [Read more...]