topic Dual citizenship in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Dual citizenship

Ahtaxquestion — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 01:01:33 GMT

My friend has a dual citizenship for USA and Germany. He no longer lives or works in USA. He moved to Germany and live and works there now. Is he still required to file a USA tax return for the money that he makes in Germany? Even though he has not worked or made any money in the USA for that year? If he does have to file will he be taxed twice, for each country?

Re: Dual citizenship

dgcarey16 — Sat, 27 Oct 2018 15:05:18 GMT

I am not a tax expert so please assess my response accordingly.....

I also have dual citizenship (US and Canada) and now am resident in Canada so I've had to research and answer the same questions. Here is what I have found:

All US citizens must file a US income tax return every year that reports worldwide income regardless of residency
As a non resident your friend would most likely use the 1040NR form
There is most likely a tax treaty between Germany and the US that reduces (but likely does not eliminate) double taxation. I'd suggest getting information directly from the German taxation department

Re: Dual citizenship

buddhadude — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 15:45:05 GMT

My Sweetie has dual citizenship (US and Canada). She must file tax returns in both countries. Which Turbotax CD product will handle that task? Thanks.

Re: Dual citizenship

pk — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 19:05:55 GMT

@Ahtaxquestion , @buddhadude , @dgcarey16 , having read through the original post and comments thereto:

(a) for tax purposes , US does not recognize dual citizenship. Thus as a citizen/resident ( Greencard ) US taxes you on your world income, no matter where earned. So all citizen/Residents must file form 1040 reporting world income.

(b) the tax treaties between US and "the other country" generally are for the purpose of 1. ameliorate double taxation and 2. provide treatment for special circumstances / situation.

(c) for US citizen/Residents earning and living in another country, there is "Foreign Earned Income" exclusion available to reduce the effects of double taxation and foreign tax credit/ deduction for taxes on income still double taxed.

(d) same rules to avoid double taxation apply for countries with whom US does not have a tax treaty, but in such cases there are no protection for special situations.

Bottom line is that as dual citizen you must still file US return to be able to take advantage of , or assert tax treaty conditions, such benefits.

Does this answer your query or do you need situation specific answers ( in which you would need to provide your country of residence, countries of citizenship, your employer whether US government, US private entity, foreign government, foreign private entity, presence type -- how long and plans to return or stay permanently, family situation -- accompanied or not, etc. etc. )

Re: Dual citizenship

buddhadude — Sun, 25 Aug 2019 03:41:09 GMT

Country of residence is Canada where she has lived for 24 years and every year filed both US and Canadian tax returns not using Turbotax.

My QUESTION is: which Turbotax CD product(s) can we use to file both the US and Canadian returns? (Hopefully the Turbotax programs talk to each other like Turbotax state programs do, to reduce redundancy in filling out forms.)

Thank you for your response.

Re: Dual citizenship

pk — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 02:33:47 GMT

@buddhadude TurboTax products are geared to each country separately i.e. the US version does only US return preparation and the Canadian version does only Canada returns. So you would have to purchase two different pieces of software -- one for the US return and one for the Canadian return. Am not familiar with Canadian tax laws and/or the TurboTax product for Canada and so cannot comment on that side but the US version I am familiar with and can say does a good job of preparing the US return.

Is there something more I can do for you ?