international tax home and travel related income expenses for temp US work

[toddswebemail]

I have an international tax home, US citizen residing abroad. I receive housing and transit reimbursement for short term contracts for work travel to the US for 3 months. My question is will that reimbursement become taxable income because of my tax home abroad? 

[tagteam]

@pk?

[pk]

@toddswebemail , 

(a) you a US person and having a Tax Home  abroad ( which country ? )

(b) you travel to USA on  business , working in situ ( USA ) for periods of up to 90 days at a time or in total  in a tax year.

(c) your expenses for the Travel ( flight/ ground transportation etc. ,  housing  et. ) expenses  are re-imbursed  by your employer ( a local entity or  foreign branch of an US entity  or ?? )  on " show receipt  or similar " basis.

 Now the question is  whether this re-imbursement will count as income  subject to US taxes.

Assuming that  you are in a country with whom US has a Tax treaty and that  you  could avail yourself  of  either Foreign Earned Income exclusion or Foreign Tax credit / deduction  etc.  this re-imbursement  of foreign travel for business ( from  the Perspective  of that country )  should  not become a taxable  item  for US tax filing.

For a more focused reply please consider  answering my questions.   

I will circle back once I hear from you.

pk

[toddswebemail]

a. Yes and Brazil. 
b. The plan is 90 days working with a few weeks traveling. There is a possibility it’ll extend to 6 months in theory. 
c. My US based employer will reimburse my flight only partially with receipt I believe, and will pay a stipend for housing and car rental on paychecks deducted directly as non taxable income. 

Thanks for your help! 

[pk · Accepted solution]

@toddswebemail , per your  original  post and subsequent explanations, your US employer appear to be using an accountable method to re-imburse you for some expenses  and these  ( re-imbursements ) are not shown as income on your W-2.  Therefore you are not taxed on these.  So I think  you are therefore  clear on this .

However while going over this thread, and because you are a US person ( citizen / GreenCard), having a foreign tax home, I have the following questions:

(a) are you filing your yearly US returns ( US taxes you on world income )?

(b) are you  paying your Social Security and Medicare contributions  and if so how ?

I recognize that i and if you are filing a US return that you can exclude  ( probably  all if not most )  your foreign earned income  from US taxation, but you have to file top do it.

Is there more I can do for you ?

pk

[toddswebemail]

I do file in the US on all my income, which is basically only from the US. Medicare and social security are deducted from remote US employers or in this case as a w2 temp employee of a U.S. company. Thanks!