- quote -

Well, under the circumstances, that's pretty much the idea.

- quote -

Would this differ in any way from what I'm already doing with the
Canadian account mentioned in the message you were responding to?

I'm more worried about whether the IRS is likely to say, "Aha, an
offshore account in Guernsey, let's do the body cavity search style
audit to see what he's hiding."

On Dec 12, 12:50 am, jo...[at]iecc.com (John L) wrote:
- quote -

One additional item I forgot to mention was that if the accounts are
denominated in a currency other than the U.S. dollar then you may have
foreign exchange gains/losses. You would also need to translate the
interest income into U.S. dollars.

- quote -

Yeah, I have a savings account in Ottawa and the forms are pretty
simple. The messiest part is coming up with plausible exchange rates,
but even that's not hard.

- quote -

Yuck. Although I'm sure that they offer all sorts of exciting
financial instruments, I'm just interested in bank accounts, nothing
fancy. See, for example,
https://www.offshore.hsbc.com/1/2/in...vings-accounts

R's,
John

On Dec 11, 4:05 pm, jo...[at]iecc.com (John L) wrote:
- quote -

As it sounds like you know, U.S. citizens and residents are taxed on
their worldwide income. Thus, you would need to include any income
from the account on your U.S. tax return. You would also need to file
Form TD F 90-22.1. Lastly, if you invest in a foreign mutual fund,
you will be subject to the passive foreign investment company ("PFIC")
rules. These are complicated rules that you would likely want to stay
away from.

Lots of big European banks have offshore subsidiaries in Jersey,
Guernsey, and the Isle of Man that offer attractive rates on pound and
euro deposits. These mostly are marketed to UK expatriates, due to
quirks of UK tax law that exempt them from UK taxes, but they're open
to anyone. They look like a straightforward way to park money in
those currencies. I'm particularly thinking of HSBC, since they're my
bank in the US.

Are there any tax gotchas for US residents? I realize that if I were
so inclined, I might accidentally forget to report the interest and
hope the IRS didn't notice, but that's not my intention.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl[at]iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, ex-Mayor
"More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly.