International Tax Blog

New IRS Practice Unit: Creation of a Permanent Establishment (PE) through the Activities of a Dependent Agent in the United States

Yesterday the IRS released a new practice unit titled: Creation of a Permanent Establishment (PE) through the Activities of a Dependent Agent in the United States. We updated our IRS Practice Units By Topic page to add this new practice unit. Read more →

Rental of Real Estate to Yourself

A taxpayer cannot rent property to him or herself. This is similar to the concept that a taxpayer cannot pay themselves a salary. For example, if a taxpayer has a sole proprietorship and he or she reports the income and expenses of that business on Schedule C of Form 1040, the taxpayer is not able to deduct salary expense on the Schedule C for “wages” paid to him or herself. This makes sense because a... Read more →

Form 5472 Failure to File Penalty Increased to $25,000

Back in 2015 we had blogged about “The Escalation of Offshore Penalties Over the Last 20 Years.” This post explained: “Over the past twenty years, the U.S. has significantly increased the penalties associated with failing to report certain foreign-related transactions, and it has created new filing requirements that have their own associated penalties.” However, the 2015 post had focused on “outbound” information reporting (U.S. persons with foreign activities), such as the FBAR and Forms 3520,... Read more →

The “Certification” on Form W-8BEN For Royalties

If you are an individual who is not a U.S. person (i.e., not a U.S. tax resident or a U.S. citizen) and you receive royalty income from a U.S. payor, the U.S. payor may ask you to fill out Form W-8BEN. If the U.S. payor does not receive the W-8BEN from you, they may be required to withhold a 30% U.S. tax on the gross payments to you. At the bottom of Form W-8BEN, just... Read more →

The “Certification” on Form W-8BEN For Interest

If you are an individual who is not a U.S. person (i.e., not a U.S. tax resident or a U.S. citizen) and you receive interest income from a U.S. resident or U.S. corporation, the U.S. person paying you the interest may ask you to fill out Form W-8BEN. If the U.S. person paying you the interest does not receive the W-8BEN from you, they may be required to withhold a 30% U.S. tax on the... Read more →

The “Certification” on Form W-8BEN For Dividends

If you are an individual who is not a U.S. person (i.e., not a U.S. tax resident or a U.S. citizen) and you receive dividends from a U.S. corporation, the U.S. company (or the brokerage firm where you hold the shares of stock) may ask you to fill out Form W-8BEN. If the U.S. corporation (or brokerage firm) does not receive the W-8BEN from you, they may be required to withhold a 30% U.S. tax... Read more →

The “Certification” on Form W-8BEN For Services

If you are an individual who is not a U.S. person (i.e., not a U.S. tax resident or a U.S. citizen) and you perform services from outside the U.S. for a U.S. customer, the U.S. customer that is paying you may ask you to fill out Form W-8BEN. If the U.S. customer does not receive the W-8BEN from you, they may be required to withhold a 30% U.S. tax on the gross payments to you.... Read more →

2019 Inflation Adjustments for Individuals in the International Tax Arena

This week the IRS published Revenue Procedure 2018-57, setting forth inflation adjusted items for 2019. In the international arena, some of the important inflation adjustments include: $168,000 --- Code § 877(a)(2)(A) --- The average annual net income tax that must be imposed for the five taxable years ending before the date of the loss of United States citizenship (or cessation of long-term permanent residency) for an individual to be considered a “covered expatriate” under Code... Read more →

2018 Third Quarter Published Expatriates – A Total of 1,107

Today the Treasury Department published the names of individuals who renounced their U.S. citizenship or terminated their long-term U.S. residency (“expatriated”) during the third quarter of 2018. The number of published expatriates for the third quarter was 1,107. The numbers for the last three quarters have essentially been flat (1,099, 1,090, and 1107). As we mentioned last quarter, the numbers seem to be leveling off or dropping. This can be seen by the 4-quarter moving... Read more →

Updated IRS Practice Units by Topic Page

The IRS publishes Practice Units (“PUs”) (formerly "International" Practice Units) on its website. PUs provide IRS staff with explanations of general tax concepts, as well as information about specific types of transactions. These PUs discuss many U.S. international tax issues that are applicable to businesses. The IRS website does not categorize them by topic therefore it can be difficult to find PUs on a particular topic. Our page Practice Units by Topic categorizes the PUs... Read more →