Category Archives: residence-based taxation

Airline and cruise ship employees: how income earned in international waters may lead to double taxation for (only) Americans abroad

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Oliver Wagner, CPA and John Richardson – January 16, 2022

Americans abroad and the presumption of double taxation

Prologue: For whom the bell tolls …

Whether a US citizen lives in (and is a tax resident of) Mexico and works on a ship in international waters

Or Whether A US citizen lives in (and is a tax resident of) Holland and is an airline pilot …

That US citizen, because and only because of the combination of US citizenship-based taxation coupled with living outside the United States, is likely to be subject to double taxation. The following discussion explains why.

A Summary Podcast …

Part A: Introduction – About Citizenship-based Taxation
Part B: How the Internal Revenue Code is designed to mitigate the effects of double taxation in certain circumstances
Part C: Determining what is “foreign source” income
Part D: The problem of international waters …
Part E: The effect of sourcing to the US income earned in international waters by dual tax residents
Part F: Deducting “foreign taxes” paid – although income from international waters may not be foreign, it is still subject to the payment of “foreign taxes”
Part G: Can a US citizen living abroad be saved by a tax treaty? Maybe if he/she lives in Canada****
Part H: Conclusion and the need for “Pure Residence-Based Taxation”

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Republicans Overseas Begins Its Support and Advocacy for Pure Residence-based Tax

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This is an incredibly significant development. See the following posts on their Facebook site. They also have a new Twitter feed. Follow them at @RepOverseas.

Republicans Overseas position On What Pure Residence-based taxation means:

Tax Talk 1 – November 22, 2021

Tax Talk 2 – November 29, 2021

Tax Talk 3 – December 10, 2021

Tax Talk 4 – December 15, 2021

Tax Talk 5 – December 20, 2021

Tax Talk 6 – December 27 2021

Tax Talk 7 – January 3, 2022

Tax Talk 8 – January 21, 2022

Tax Talk – January 24, 2022

The Beyer “Tax Simplification For Americans Abroad Act”: A First Look

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Updates November 22, 2021:

1. I have also written a post on the SEAT site which compares (in a general way) the Beyer Bill of 2021 to the Holding Bill of (2018). Any attempt to solve this problem through amending the FEIE actually has the effect of strengthening citizenship based taxation.

2. With respect to the 402(b) exclusion:

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Update – Podcast November 24, 2021

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Introduction

On November 19, 2021 a post on the Democrats Abroad site introduced Congressman Beyer’s “Tax Simplification For Americans Abroad Act”. The Bill has been introduced as HR6057. I just saw this a few hours ago. Therefore, this post is necessarily a summary of my first impressions. It is likely that this will evolve and be updated over the next few days.

For those who do not want to read this relatively long post, the following excerpt provides an executive summary:

The Beyer Bill does NOT end US “citizenship-based taxation” and does NOT enact “residence-based taxation” as understood in the rest of the world. That said, the Beyer bill is intended to provide administrative (less to do) and substantive (less to pay) relief to middle class Americans abroad as long as they are not “entrepreneurs abroad” who carry on business through a CFC. “Entrepreneurs abroad” continue to be presumptively GILTI. If I am reading this correctly, GILTI income appears to NOT be included in the expansion of the scope of 911. Furthermore, the bill appears to provide conflicting directives on some “foreign pensions” (specifically excluding 402(b) pensions from the proposed new 911 exclusion while generally allowing foreign pensions generally to be excluded). It is my understanding that many Australian residents treat employer Superannuations as 402(b) pensions under the Internal Revenue Code.)

Like all “carveouts” the proposal purports to provide relief to a narrowly defined group of Americans abroad. In addition (this cannot be overemphasized) the bill retains US citizenship-based taxation. It should be clearly understood that ANY attempt to provide relief through expanding the FEIE (including the 2018 Holding bill) necessarily assumes the continuation of citizenship-based taxation.

This post is composed of the following four parts:

Part A – The General Purpose

Part B – General Impressions

Part C – The relevant modifications to IRC 911 Foreign Earned Income Exclusion

Part D – Tentative conclusion

* Appendix – The text of 911 with the proposed changes

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Toward An Explanation For Why Some Americans Abroad Oppose Changes To Citizenship Taxation

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Prologue

This is the fourth of a series of posts focussing on the need to end US citizenship-based taxation (practised only by the USA) and move to a form of pure residence-based taxation (practised by the rest of the world). The first post was titled “Toward A Definition Of Residence-based Taxation For Americans Abroad“. The second post was titled “Toward A Movement For Residence-based Taxation For Americans Abroad“. The third post was “Toward An Explanation For Why Some Americans Abroad Are Complacent About Citizenship Taxation“. This fourth post explains why some Americans Abroad actually OPPOSE changes to citizenship-based taxation.

My last post discussed those who were complacent about citizenship-based taxation. In other words people who are actually indifferent. Their indifference contributes to the difficulty in cultivating a strong movement in support of pure residence-based taxation.

The purpose of this post is to discuss those who actually support the current system of citizenship-based taxation because they fear any change will harm them. They are NOT indifferent. They support the current system fo citizenship-based taxation.
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