International Tax Blog

Withdrawal of Prior Blog Post Regarding Australian Superannuation Funds

Last week we posted about the taxation of Australian superannuation funds potentially being treated as social security under the Australia-U.S Income Tax Treaty. The post explicitly assumed, for argument’s sake, that “superannuation guarantee” was considered part of the social security system of Australia. The post also implicitly assumed that superannuation guarantee was paid into superannuation funds by employers, and not by the Government of Australia. Under these assumptions, the post concluded that the treaty would... Read more →

New Rules for Canadian RRSPs & RRIFs

Last week the IRS released Revenue Procedure 2014-55, which greatly simplifies the U.S. tax treatment of RRSPs and RRIFs. Under U.S. domestic law, a U.S. citizen or resident who is the beneficiary of a foreign retirement plan will generally be subject to current U.S. income taxation on income accrued in the plan even though the income is not currently distributed to the beneficiary, unless the plan is an employees’ trust within the meaning of Code... Read more →

Past I.R.S. Memoranda on the Singapore Central Provident Fund

In the past the I.R.S. has written several internal memoranda on the taxation of contributions into the Singapore Central Provident Fund (the “Fund”). The issue in the memoranda was whether an employee could exclude from income (under the Code §911 foreign earned income exclusion) contributions made into the Fund. In 1988, the I.R.S. concluded that the amount paid by an employer out of the employer’s own funds was taxable under Code §402(b) and that the... Read more →

International PLRs & CCA of the 31st week of 2012

Recently the IRS published the following Private Letter Rulings and Chief Cousel Advice relating to international taxation for the 31st week of 2012. PLR 201231005 - Late entity classification election for a foreign entity to be treated as a corporation. Form 8832. Treas. Reg. §301.7701-3(c). PLR 201231006 - Early re-election of 911 exclusion. The taxpayer moved back to the U.S. and erroneously thought he had to revoke his election because he no longer had any... Read more →

International PLR of the 25th week of 2012

Several weeks ago the IRS published the following Private Letter Ruling relating to international taxation for the 25th week of 2012. PLR 201225002 - Late Canadian registered retirement savings plan ("RRSP") deferral election. Form 8891. Rev. Proc. 2002-23. Read more →

Income Accruing in Foreign Retirement Plans

U.S. citizens that live and work outside the U.S. often participate in foreign retirement plans. Similarly, non-U.S. citizens that move to the U.S. and become U.S. tax residents, after working outside the U.S., have often participated in foreign retirement plans. A question that sometimes arises is whether the income accruing annually in the foreign retirement plans must be included on the individual's U.S. tax return. The rule for this situation was concisely stated in Rev.... Read more →

Pensions Under the Belgium-U.S. Income Tax Treaty

On April 30, 2010, the I.R.S. announced that the competent authorities of Belgium and the U.S. have entered into an agreement regarding the types of pension plans that will be deemed to generally correspond to a “pension” under the Belgium-U.S. Income Tax Treaty (the “Treaty”). Under the agreement, the types of pension plans established in the U.S. that will be treated as pension plans in Belgium include: a qualified plan under Code § 401(a) (including... Read more →