Tax advice including USA

[doubleh]

Hi all, and thanks for helpful responses to my last post particularly from Tim Caprica. I'm now convinced I need an accountant and am trying to decide who to go for.

Before I get flamed I see that there are loads of recommendation threads which I am working through, but I have some relatively unusual needs in terms of tax advice so would love to hear from anyone who has dealt with similar issues.

The biggest complication is that my wife is a US citizen so has to file US taxes even though living and working here. To make things even trickier her job may require that we relocate to Switzerland within the next couple of years, and there is the chance down the line that we may one day move to the US which would mean I potentially come into the remit of US taxes including on my UK investments.

Has anyone here had similar issues and can recommend an accountant who was able to give useful advice? Or at least can recommend an accountant who includes a good depth of tax advice within their fee?

Or do I just need to accept that this is outside The remit of a day to day accountant and I will need specialist tax advice - in which case can anyone make a recommendation for this?

Thanks

[jamesbrown]

For advice on US citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the US you can try, respectively, UK Yankee | Expat Americans in the UK and British Expatriate Community : British Expat Community. The suggested accountants will depend on where you are and on your situation (some of them specialize in high net-worth individuals). Excellent examples include:

Pete Newton (US - UK Tax Preparation and Advice | BritishExpatsTax.Com)
Carl Simons-Short (Fitzgerald Law: London Accountants : F&L : Fitzgerald and Law. High net worth individuals)
Nicky Reynolds at Tower tax (specialists in expatriate tax, employment tax, UK, US and international personal tax)

If you do become subject to US taxes at some point, bear in mind that the IRS is becoming increasingly interested in individuals with foreign investments and the filing requirements are often significant and, in some cases, the taxes are punitive, despite the double taxation treaty in place (e.g. SIPPs and ISAs are not treated as tax friendly vehicles by the IRS). It is particularly cumbersome if you're a director of a foreign corporation. For example, IRS form 5471 (officer or >10% shareholder of a foreign corporation) has an estimated burden of 32 hours! So expect fairly large tax preparation fees. So you're absolutely right to seek out a good professional tax lawyer/accountant and, with that, you'll get peace of mind.