What are the tax issues of working in San Diego on an H1-B Visa or living in the US as a foreign national? There are specific IRS reporting requirements that many foreign nationals living and working in the United States may not be aware of. Unfortunately, the IRS will not accept that you were unaware of our tax laws, and the resulting penalties and interest are quite high. H1-B visas bring highly educated and specialized workers to the United States. San Diego is home to leading bio-tech and cutting edge technology employers. Many of their employees arrived in the US under an H1-B visa. These employees need to understand the tax issues of working in San Diego on an H1-B visa and the tax reporting requirements of the IRS.
One example is the IRS FBAR report. If you have offshore bank or investment accounts, and the balance of all of these accounts exceeds $10,000 at any point during a tax year (even for a day) you are required to file the IRS Foreign Bank Account Report or FBAR. The failure to report these accounts exposes the US taxpayer to highly punitive penalties and interest of $100,000 per incident or 50% of the highest accumulated balances of all accounts at any point in each year. It doesn’t matter how much remains in that account today.
The IRS has provided two programs for US taxpayers to disclose foreign bank and investment accounts: the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program or OVDP, and the Streamlined Domestic/Foreign Offshore Procedures. The experienced and seasoned tax attorneys, accountants and tax preparation specialists at Allen Barron will help you to come into compliance with IRS FBAR reporting. We will help you to understand all of the tax issues of working in San Diego on an H1-B visa and help to ensure you come into compliance. We can save you a substantial amount of money while extending the protections of the attorney-client privilege. If you would like to learn more about IRS FBAR reporting and the tax issues of working in San Diego on an H1-B visa we invite you to contact us for a free consultation at 866-631-3470.
