Tax specialist in Pattaya familiar with USA IRS, FBAR and amending returns?

[ding]

Is there a recommendation for a Tax specialist in Pattaya familiar with USA IRS, FBAR and amending past returns?

[TravelerEastWest]

I have not found anyone in Thailand that is easy to contact and with Thai level prices...

 

Just as easy or more so to contact someone in America and deal with them online.

 

If anyone has a better suggestion I would love to hear about it...

[ding]

8 minutes ago, TravelerEastWest said:

I have not found anyone in Thailand that is easy to contact and with Thai level prices...

 

 

Thanks! One place in the US responded and spit-balled their typical price, $8,500USD.

:cough:

I may just use TurboTax again - I didn't live here for 330 days in 2022 - if I can't find expert tax help in Thailand.

[Danderman123]

What is FUBAR? Is the tax authority for the state of Florida?

[richard_smith237]

40 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

What is FUBAR? Is the tax authority for the state of Florida?

Correctamundo... its overseen by SNAFU....  with is the national body.... 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

These are not local for Pattaya... but they're online and specialize in tax issues for US expats living abroad. (PS - I have not used any of these myself, so I can't personally vouch for them. But they are well-known entities in the field).

 

https://www.taxesforexpats.com/services/our-fees.html

 

https://globalustaxplan.com/

https://americanexpatfinance.com/news/item/366-bangkok-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know

 

https://www.greenbacktaxservices.com/audience/americans-working-abroad/

 

[ding]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

These are not local for Pattaya... but they're online and specialize in tax issues for US expats living abroad. (PS - I have not used any of these myself, so I can't personally vouch for them. But they are well-known entities in the field).

 

https://www.taxesforexpats.com/services/our-fees.html

 

https://globalustaxplan.com/

https://americanexpatfinance.com/news/item/366-bangkok-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know

 

https://www.greenbacktaxservices.com/audience/americans-working-abroad/

 

Thank you very much, the help is appreciated!

[gk10012001]

After doing my own taxes for 49 years, and never had any issues.  Last year I used a local CPA tax agency and they made mistakes that cost me first 862 USD for their services, which was actually well worth it as I had 3 state income taxes to deal with.  But the Feds did not like what they did and sent me a bill with no explanations and I had to pay the IRS another 592.  I have an IRS account and all it seemed to say was something about advance child care credit?  I have never been married, no kids, never touched any thing to do with that, etc. 

 

This year, I only have one state I worked in, but for grins I tried the deluxe downloadable Turbo Tax.  That really was pretty easy to use.  I had Obamacare for a few months, some slot machine w2Gs, some stocks, dividends, an excess ROTH IRA contribution.  Nothing complicated and I had already roughed out the Federal taxes.  Turbo Tax came up with the exact same amounts as I had.  The nice thing was it then spit out the one Tate income taxes at the push of a button.  Well worth the 105 bucks.

 

  In your case I would suggest you pay turbo tax a little bit more and get access to their real live person tax expert, or even let them take a shot at doing your taxes.  Not a bad thing to try pricewise.

[Danderman123]

I always use Turbo Tax, never had a problem.

 

One thing I did after I retired to Thailand, I use Texas as my state of residence, so no need to file a Texas state tax return.

[dlclark97]

Not cheap but myself and another friend have used them and they saved up lots.  Using again this year.  New address than shown below but right in the next building.

 

Client Manager

American International Tax Advisors

140 One Pacific Place, Unit 1804, 18th Floor

Sukhumvit Road, Klong toey Bangkok 10110

Phone: +66 81-890-6097

[email protected]

www.aitaxadvisers.com

[biervoormij]

19 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

What is FUBAR? Is the tax authority for the state of Florida?

I assume you mean this as a joke but hope you know that FBAR is Reporting your Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. This is required for US citizens that have a non US account with a value of $10,000 anytime in the year.

 

Turbo Tax does not file this for you but is simple to do yourself at the following link.

https://bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov/NoRegFBARFiler.html

 

 

[mudcat]

Given that you mention FBAR and amended returns you probably are going to file under what is called streamlined filing which requires filing years of missing FinCEN 114s and three years of amended returns that report and pay taxes on the accounts you failed to report.  If you have time and good records you can do it yourself as I did.  Send a pm if you want.

 

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/streamlined-filing-compliance-procedures

 

 

[wmccpa112253]

CPA in Chiang Mai with over 20 years experience.

[wmccpa112253]

Would be glad to speak with you about your situation.  I am a retired CPA living in Chiang Mai.

Send message on how to contact you on private line or phone.

[thailand49]

In California,  I do it all online if timing is not along the lines of tax season. Tax guy provides me with some special website of his that supposed to be secured I download my 1099 forms he already has my general information etc.etc. when done sign on line he has bank information where IRS is to send refund or take payment. Never had a problem!  Cost around 150.00 USD

You can arrange something with HR block.

[TravelerEastWest]

23 hours ago, Danderman123 said:

 

Edited March 13, 2023 by TravelerEastWest
Duplicate information

[TravelerEastWest]

3 hours ago, wmccpa112253 said:

CPA in Chiang Mai with over 20 years experience.

Tell us more.

 

I am in CM and could not find an active Tax specialist CPA;  only a CPA that seemed to be retired that i could not contact...

[TravelerEastWest]

4 hours ago, dlclark97 said:

Not cheap but myself and another friend have used them and they saved up lots.  Using again this year.  New address than shown below but right in the next building.

 

Client Manager

American International Tax Advisors

140 One Pacific Place, Unit 1804, 18th Floor

Sukhumvit Road, Klong toey Bangkok 10110

Phone: +66 81-890-6097

[email protected]

www.aitaxadvisers.com

Are they CPAs? I didn't see any mention on their website.

 

If they are (enrolled agents etc) they should be much lower than a CPA in cost...

[mudcat]

Sorry for not reading your first reply - unless you can demonstrate offshore residence for more than 330 in one of the previous three tax years you use the domestic version of streamlined compliance:

 

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/u-s-taxpayers-residing-in-the-united-states

 

One difference is that the 'domestic' version assess a 5% penalty on offshore balances you failed to report over the past six-years - the IRS tax lookback is still only three-years.  The penalty and back taxes may be niggling or may be significant.  We got out of compliance when we failed to report some accounts my wife held prior to our marriage/her citizenship - the damage was minor but the work was significant.

[dxrdxr]

I have lived overseas for many years and through my misunderstanding of tax laws screwed it all up. I have a CPA in San Francisco who fixed multiple years of missing/incorrect taxes. He is super smart and can handle most everything.

I would hesitate to trust someone local to Thailand, US tax laws are so complex that it has to be a full time job to keep current.

 

Send me a message if you want a referral…

 

[Danderman123]

22 hours ago, biervoormij said:

I assume you mean this as a joke but hope you know that FBAR is Reporting your Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts. This is required for US citizens that have a non US account with a value of $10,000 anytime in the year.

 

Turbo Tax does not file this for you but is simple to do yourself at the following link.

https://bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov/NoRegFBARFiler.html

 

 

and TurboTax will inform you that there is no need to file a FUBAR report if total assets abroad are less than $50,000.

[biervoormij]

15 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

and TurboTax will inform you that there is no need to file a FUBAR report if total assets abroad are less than $50,000.

I thought the $50,000 was the limit for the FATCA Form 8938 not for the FBAR.

 

TurboTax told me I did not need to file 8938 but honestly I did not read the FBAR statement closely this year since I had already filed my FBAR.

[soisanuk]

10 minutes ago, Danderman123 said:

and TurboTax will inform you that there is no need to file a FUBAR report if total assets abroad are less than $50,000.

I use Turbo Tax and, as mentioned, they advised me I needed to file a FBAR report when I answered "yes" to having had more than the US$10,000 threshold for such reports.

 

However, when I answered "no" to having foreign financial assets of more than US$50,000 they said no report was necessary - that threshold applies to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) - a different law from the one that requires the FBAR report - the $50k is the lowest of several thresholds that vary depending on filing status and how long you have been outside the USA during the calendar year. 

 

The FBAR report is done online and filed with Fincen (a part of the Dept of Treasury, but separate from the IRS).  If required to report under FATCA, it is done on a form included with the Form 1040 income tax report, which I presume would be incorporated into the Turbo Tax filing.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

23 hours ago, biervoormij said:

This is required for US citizens that have a non US account with a value of $10,000 anytime in the year.

 

The FBAR filing obligation for Americans actually applies when the combined values of any/all foreign financial holdings they had during the past year exceeds $10,000 U.S.

 

It's not a threshold of more than $10K per foreign account, but rather, anytime when the combined values of all one's foreign accounts exceed $10K.

 

"Who Must File

A U.S. person, including a citizen, resident, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, trust and estate, must file an FBAR to report:

1. a financial interest in or signature or other authority over at least one financial account located outside the United States if
2. the aggregate value of those foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year reported."

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/report-of-foreign-bank-and-financial-accounts-fbar

 

Edited March 14, 2023 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

31 minutes ago, biervoormij said:

I thought the $50,000 was the limit for the FATCA Form 8938 not for the FBAR.

 

TurboTax told me I did not need to file 8938 but honestly I did not read the FBAR statement closely this year since I had already filed my FBAR.

 

FBAR has a lower reporting threshold, so probably captures more expats..

 

Whereas FATCA has a series of several different higher reporting thresholds, depending on one's personal circumstances.

 

FATCA's generally going to apply to fewer expats than FBAR.

 

For expats here, just keeping 800K Thai baht in a Thai bank account for retirement extension purposes is going to put someone well above the FBAR filing threshold -- even if they had no other foreign financial holdings at all.

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

FATCA filing thresholds:

 

People living in the US have lower filing thresholds:

• Unmarried taxpayers living in the US: The total value of your specified foreign financial assets is more than $50,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $75,000 at any time during the tax year
   
• Married taxpayers filing a joint income tax return and living in the US: The total value of your specified foreign financial assets is more than $100,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $150,000 at any time during the tax year
   

People living abroad have higher filing thresholds, ranging between $200K and $600K:

• You are filing a return other than a joint return and the total value of your specified foreign assets is more than $200,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $300,000 at any time during the year; or

 

• You are filing a joint return and the value of your specified foreign asset is more than $400,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $600,000 at any time during the year.

 

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/corporations/do-i-need-to-file-form-8938-statement-of-specified-foreign-financial-assets

 

[mudcat]

The requirement file f8938  would apply my wife as she an classic Thai small saver with a few passbook accounts with an important exception   After I pass her assets would otherwise require filing, but

 

 

Possible requirement to file f8938: If your combined Thai bank accounts dollar balance is more than $200,000 on the last day of the year or more than $300,000 at any point during the year you need to file f8938, but only if you need to file taxes*. The requirement to file Form F8938 comes with significant penalties, so you must keep track of your income and assets, so you do not fail to file.

 

* TIP Exception if no income tax return required. If you do not have to file an income tax return for the tax year, you do not have to file Form 8938, even if the value of your specified foreign financial assets is more than the appropriate reporting threshold. (from i8938 instructions)

 

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

I believe there's another exception to the requirement to file f8938: Accounts at overseas branches of US financial institutions are excepted.

 

Citibank here in Thailand is a branch, so no need for f8938 for accounts with Citibank Thailand. Unfortunately, Citibank has sold its consumer banking business to UOB and 2022 is probably the last year for this.

 

From the instructions for f8938 from the IRS website:

 

"Certain Financial Accounts The following financial accounts and the assets held in such accounts are not specified foreign financial assets and do not have to be reported on Form 8938.

1. A financial account that is maintained by a U.S. payer, such as a domestic financial institution. In general, a U.S. payer also includes a domestic branch of a foreign bank or foreign insurance company and a foreign branch or foreign subsidiary of a U.S. financial institution."