Larry's 2016 U.S. Tax Guide ‘Supplement’ for U.S. Expats, Green Card Holders and Non-Resident Aliens in User-Friendly English!
by Asian Tax Review's
Laurence E. 'Larry' Lipsher
Copyright 2016 by prctaxman.corp, #7-F, The Garley Building, 53 Graham Street, Central, Hong Kong
All rights reserved
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2639-6
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Please note: This edition was completed on 8 February 2016. It is, though, an ongoing 'work in process' as regulations and procedures – not coming in major magnitude from either the IRS or a do-nothing Congress - but occasionally popping up during the year are occasionally changes worth note. When that happens, then I'll include them within my website: www.lifeilao.com……Thus, read on for the expat’s tax nuts and bolts with the addition of my mini-autobiography attached at the end – take a brief look at it – I think you will like it!
Also written by Larry Lipsher
The Tax Analects of Li Fei Lao (2009) - it is still relevant, after all these years, proving that tax laws around the world do not change as frequently as U.S. Tax law.....it really is a great book, even if I do say so, myself – the cartooning is superb!
Larry's 2011/2012/2013/2014 Supplement and 2015 Tax Guides for the U.S. Expat and Green Card Holder - in User Friendly English! - I think you will find that one can write tax comedy - or at least come as close as you can get to writing tax comedy, because absolutely nothing is funny about being caught in a penalizing tax conundrum, no matter which jurisdiction is seemingly attempting to extort what you believe is an unfair, unjustifiable amount out of you. Still, you, the reader, must assume some tax education responsibility to protect yourself and if you've got to read something, these books are the ones you truly want to read - unless you are suffering from insomnia, in which case I seriously suggest that you go to the IRS website, www.irs.gov.
A few words (actually, a whole lot more than a few!) about the author....
Who the hell is Larry Lipsher (and why is he doing this)?
Laurence E. 'Larry' Lipsher is an American CPA who has been doing U.S. tax returns for the past 49 years. Imagine, 49 years as a bean counter - how dreadfully boring! While he proudly states that over the past four-plus decades on the job, he has yet to develop serious brain damage from a life of tax work, those around him seriously wonder. Lipsher has worked in Asia for a quarter of a century, living for 25 of those years, since 1990, in China - he changed from being just a bean counter to, literally and figuratively being a rice counter , too, because CPA in Mandarin, really means rice counter!
Lipsher, a past president of the American Chamber of Commerce of South China, was, for twelve years writer of the Asian Tax Review for Worldwide Tax Daily of Tax Analysts, Washington, DC. He has been featured on CCTV (China Central Television) World Wide Watch, the most widely viewed evening television news program in the world. He has appeared frequently on CNN , Wall Street Journal television, Reuters TV and CNBC. Lipsher specializes in tax issues involving jurisdictions throughout Asia as well as U.S. tax matters – particularly as they apply to U.S. tax filers living and working outside of the United States. Lipsher has lived in the Pearl River Delta capital city of Guangzhou since 1994. He is one of only a very few foreigners ever to have been given a business license to practice as a certified public accountant in the People's Republic of China. He is the only non-Chinese writer ever to have articles (two of them) translated and published in the China Accountant, the official monthly publication of the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Lipsher has also been writing monthly articles about international tax matters for TaxIndiaInternational.com. All in all Lipsher has written over 300 tax articles since his very first article appeared in the AICPA Journal of Accountancy in 1979.
Truth be told, Lipsher would rather write fiction than non-fiction but has not yet become 'passionate' enough to spend the time doing this. Alas, Lipsher is nothing more than a 'weekend musician' jazz chromatic harmonica player because while the interest is there, the passion to practice is still lacking. Yet the passion is there to masochistically attempt to write a user-friendly overview of what the U.S. expat and green card holder has to be aware of for the coming year, a year guaranteed to be even more onerous based on actions of the IRS towards those obligated to file who happen to reside outside of the United States. Alas, dear readers, the IRS wants more and more and more from you. To the fullest extent possible, this book is written to provide you with what we believe is all you really need to know as an overview of how you must interface, on an annual basis, with the U.S. government.
Hey, it is far from being the whole enchilada (but much, much more than adding chili relleno to the plate!). Yet please remember that while this is an overview, you are legally responsible to understand, if for no other reason than saving yourself from 'willful neglect' and the penalties – costly, of course – that the IRS will assess for willful negligence (which the courts deem you to display as preposterous as it seems). We ask you to do something different, something you have likely never done before when matters of tax are concerned: read this book for fun! No, I am not out of my mind – I have tried to be as funny and cynical as I can possibly be – ONLY because I want you to have fun reading this! And, let’s face it – since this is going to be my 7th and final book, it will be more cynical and funnier than ever!
Don't read the whole book if you are not interested – simply read the sections that you feel are applicable to your situation. If you want to read the whole thing, from start to finish – hey, it's not really that long and you might actually enjoy it – especially my non-tax ‘Nine Essays from a Trans-Pacific Rock n Tax Man’! Sorry, no sex involved but I guarantee that it does cover some interesting aspects of a life with drugs and rock n roll (and as a prelude to a life of tax, it is damned interesting)!
And to finish this ‘prelude’ let us use some IRS ‘suggested’ words…..
IRS CIRCULAR 230 DISCLAIMER: Pursuant to regulations governing the practice of attorneys, certified public accountants, enrolled agents, enrolled actuaries and appraisers before the Internal Revenue Service, unless otherwise expressly stated, and U.S. federal or state tax advice in this book is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used by a taxpayer for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties that may be imposed under federal or state law or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or tax-related matter(s) addressed herein.
O.K. that was enough of a prelude….now let’s get to the annotated table of contents and then to the introduction!
For the seventh time….. My not so infamous, semi-annotated Table of Contents
The ‘preliminary’ stuff – you know, the sort of pages that are at the start of each and every book you see.
A
