US Tax Training – Moving Abroad: Tax Impact on Digital Nomads, Remote Workers and Their (Often Overlooked) Employers

Tax pro’s – are you prepared to advise clients who wish to explore foreign work possibilities?

So many changes have been wrought as a result of COVID-19, one of the biggest being remote working. As a direct result of the pandemic people are moving or considering it.  COVID-19 has convinced us that having internet access and a trusty laptop means it is not only possible, but very gratifying, to be able to work from anywhere!  Many are looking at a move overseas and taking advantage of special visa programs that encourage remote working professionals to take the leap.

Some individuals may make the move as an employee of an established company, others as a self-employed individual, perhaps creating a foreign entity to run the business.  Are you ready to handle the complex tax issues that come with these scenarios?  What if your client chooses to live as a so-called “digital nomad”, working remotely from different foreign lands – be it from a short-term rented apartment, hotel room, coffee shop, shared work space or airport lounge?  Will the employee’s presence in the foreign country drag the employer-company into that country’s tax net?

Any international move comes with a vast array of complicated US tax issues.  Our webinar will get you ready to advise your clients who are considering taking the plunge and moving abroad. As US tax practitioners who have lived and worked abroad for decades, as well as having worked on numerous cases together, these are issues with which we have incomparable experience.

Here are the tax issues we plan to cover in our upcoming cost-effective live webinar:

Training Session:  Tax Planning /Advising “Remote Workers” & “Digital Nomads” Moving Abroad

• “Employee” v. “Self Employed” – critical tax differences and treatment.
• Overview of the foreign earned income and housing exclusions (FEIE/FHE)
• Where is the “tax home” when working from numerous countries?
• Traps for the unwary – an “abode” in the USA precludes using the FEIE/FHE benefits
• What if a home is purchased instead of rented? Any benefits?
• Using FEIE/FHE versus FTC and cases of “overlap”
• Physical presence in the foreign countr(y)(ies) and becoming “tax resident”
• Physical presence of the employee in the foreign country can cause the employer-company to be dragged into that country’s tax net. Planning!
• Tax reporting – Special reporting requirements may come into play when working overseas (FBAR, Form 8938 and numerous other forms if a foreign entity is created to run the business such as Form 926 and 5471)
• Self-employment tax (SE tax) – a rude awakening
• SE tax and totalization agreements / treaty based return positions
• Can SE tax be avoided through use of a foreign corporation? – Beware CFC / Subpart F and Substantial Assistance and, of course, GILTI
• Tax problems with “foreign” investments – including participation in a foreign employer’s pension plan, investment in a foreign mutual fund or foreign life insurance
• State taxes –responsibility for State taxes after having moved abroad; breaking State tax residency with proper planning

REGISTRATION

This training session is at an affordable price – just USD $185 to ensure that as many of you as possible can access this important information.

There are only 100 spots available, and our last training filled up quickly.

The training session will be 1.5 hours long with .50 for Q&A.  It will be held on Thursday, May 27, 2021 at 7 PM Dubai time, and tickets won’t be available after the event starts. To ensure your place, register HERE.

This live online training is offered by international tax experts Virginia La Torre Jeker, J.D. and Jimmy Sexton, LL.M. More about us below.  Hope to see you in a few weeks!

Virginia La Torre Jeker, J.D. is a member of the New York Bar since 1984, admitted to US Tax Court and has specialized in US international tax issues since leaving America in 1986: 15 years in Hong Kong, 20 years in Dubai. She has been quoted in Newsweek, NYT, WSJ, profiled in Tax Notes International as a preeminent US tax professional and listed in Forbes, Top 100 Must-Follow Tax Twitter Accounts every year since 2017. Virginia has also taught law at the American University in Dubai and the American University of Sharjah in the UAE, as well as taught CPA review courses in both Hong Kong and Singapore. She is a prolific writer on international tax matters with a weekly US tax blog as well as numerous publications in scholarly journals.

Jimmy Sexton, LL.M. is the Founder and CEO of Esquire Group, a boutique international tax and wealth planning firm he founded in 2005. From his base in Dubai, he regularly travels throughout the Middle East, Europe, and the America’s meeting with clients, speaking at events, and overseeing Esquire Group’s global operations. He’s spoken before organization such as the U.N., the American Chamber of Commerce, and eBay. Jimmy has been a featured speaker and panelist at industry events like TaxLinked and the International Business Structuring Association and been quoted and published by media outlets like Forbes, CNN, the Washington Post, and Bloomberg. He is also the Chairman of the International Business Structuring Association’s Middle East Chapter.