topic Foreign retirement/pension plan in Retirement tax questions

Foreign retirement/pension plan

Kongkong313 — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 08:42:59 GMT

I am a US citizen currently working in S. Korea and have been enrolled in a defined contribution plan with my employer. If I end up quitting, the employer transfers the funds in the DC plan to an individual retirement account that I am required to open upon termination.

Is the annual employer contribution taxable even though I have not taken any distributions yet and are the accrued capital gains and dividends taxable when I take the distributions? (then I would need to amend previous tax returns)

If so, is the employer contribution excludable under the foreign earned income exclusion?

If not, am I required to report the employer contributions, gains, and dividends altogether and pay taxes on them upon termination--when the funds are transferred to an individual retirement account?

Re: Foreign retirement/pension plan

Critter-3 — Sun, 01 Aug 2021 22:57:54 GMT

If the DC is rolled into an IRA then you did not make a distribution so nothing is taxable. To make sure nothing is taxable when you leave then make sure it is a trustee to trustee conversion ... do NOT touch the money yourself.

Re: Foreign retirement/pension plan

Kongkong313 — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 02:50:26 GMT

Thank you so much for your answer.

I heard that foreign retirement accounts could be treated differently from US retirement accounts and that tax deferrals may not be available for foreign retirement plans. I hope that's not true..