April 01, 2024

U.K. Budget Proclaims Death Knell For Remittance Basis Taxation

April 01, 2024/ Ruchelman P.L.L.C.

As was widely anticipated, the Chancellor of the U.K. used his budget speech on March 6 to announce the termination of the non-domicile regime and remittance basis of taxation effective April 12, 2025. In its place, a new foreign income and gains (“F.I.G.”) regime will be available for individuals who become U.K. tax resident after a period of 10 tax years of nonresident status. Individuals who qualify for the new regime will be able to bring F.I.G. to the U.K. free from any U.K. tax for up to four years. Current non-doms who cannot qualify for the F.I.G. regime can benefit from a 50% deduction on remittances through April 5, 2026. Kevin Offer, C.A., a partner of Hardwick and Morris L.L.P., London, explains these and other provisions that will apply as the U.K. enters a brave new world.

May 27, 2021

The 15 Most Important Questions That Should Be Asked When Estate Planning for a Foreign Parent with U.S. Children

May 27, 2021/ Ruchelman P.L.L.C.

· U.S. estate tax planning is said to be among the most complicated aspect of tax planning because of the numerous moving parts and the changing needs and objectives of the family. The exercise becomes complicated when the client is not a U.S. person, but the heirs live in the U.S. and have started families in the U.S. For an estate planner with a focus on domestic clients, the customary tools may not work. It is easy to know what you know, but not always easy to know what you don’t know. Neha Rastogi and Stanley C. Ruchelman ask and answer 15 questions that highlight the favorable and unfavorable provisions of U.S. tax law affecting nonresident, non-citizen individuals having U.S. persons as heirs.

February 29, 2016

A Concise Guide to Acquisition Vehicles for Purchase of U.S. Real Estate by Foreign Individuals

February 29, 2016/ Web Developer

Question: How many ways are there to structure an investment in U.S. real property by a foreign person? Answer: Many. Nina Krauthamer describes five.

June 01, 2015

The US Net Investment Income Tax→

June 01, 2015/ Web Developer

First published by the Canadian Tax Foundation in (2015) 23:6 Canadian Tax Highlights.

January 15, 2015

Filing Requirements Upon Conversion of a Trust Between Foreign and Domestic Status

January 15, 2015/ Web Developer

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INTRODUCTION

Whether a trust is categorized as a U.S. domestic trust or a foreign trust leads to different tax consequences and different filing obligations. This leads to the following questions: Which tax return must be filed when a trust is converted from a U.S. domestic trust to a foreign trust, and which applies when a foreign trust is converted to a U.S. domestic trust? A Chief Counsel Advice Memorandum, C.C.A. 201432022 issued on August 8, 2014, provides guidance on filing requirements in these fact patterns. Though it stated the obvious, the C.C.A. still leaves questions open, in particular with respect to grantor trusts. This article summarizes the conclusion reached by the C.C.A. and addresses issues for which clarification was not provided.

C.C.A. 201432022

In approaching the issue, the C.C.A. began by outlining the rules under which the filing status of a trust is determined for U.S. federal income tax purposes.

U.S. Trust versus Foreign Trust – General Tax Rules

Domestic trusts, like U.S. citizens and residents, are taxed on worldwide income, whereas foreign trusts, like nonresident aliens, are taxed only on U.S.-source income and income effectively connected with the conduct of business in the United States.

June 15, 2014

Tax 101: Taxation of Foreign Trusts

June 15, 2014/ Web Developer

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INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS A FOREIGN TRUST?

In General

A trust is a relationship (generally a written agreement) created at the direction of an individual (the settlor), in which one or more persons (the trustees) hold the individual's property, subject to certain duties, to use and protect it for the benefit of others (the beneficiaries). In general, the term “trust” as used in the Internal Revenue Code (the “Code”) refers to an arrangement created either by a will or by an inter vivos declaration whereby trustees take title to property for the purpose of protecting or conserving it for the beneficiaries under the ordinary rules applied in chancery or probate courts.

Trusts can be characterized as grantor trusts or ordinary trusts. Ordinary trusts can be characterized as simple trusts or complex trusts; U.S. tax laws have special definitions for these concepts. A simple trust is a trust that is required to distribute all of its annual income to the beneficiaries. Beneficiaries cannot be charitable. A complex trust is an ordinary trust which is not a simple trust, i.e., a trust that may accumulate income, distribute corpus, or have charitable beneficiaries. Ordinary trusts are “hybrid” entities, serving as a conduit for distributions of distributable net income (“D.N.I.”), a concept defined in the Code,52 to beneficiaries and receiving a deduction for D.N.I. distributions, while being taxed on other income (e.g., accumulated income, income allocated to corpus).

A trust can be domestic or foreign. This article will focus on the U.S. tax consequences with respect to “foreign grantor trusts” (“F.G.T.”) and “foreign nongrantor trusts” (“F.N.G.T.”).