The 2014 Very Necessary Supplement to Larry's Tax Guide for U.S. Expats and Green Card Holders in User-Friendly English!
by Asian Tax Review's
Laurence E. 'Larry' Lipsher
Copyright 2014 Laurence E. 'Larry' Lipsher,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2135-3
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 supplement to the 2013 edition was started on 31 December 2013 and was completed on 12 Febuary 2014. It is, though, an ongoing 'work in process' as regulations and procedures - coming from the IRS, this past year, a year of a do-nothing Congress - really do justify spending my month vacation in Thailand, masochistically staying attentive to U.S. Tax matters for yet another year of my life. Regardless, if there are changes worth note, then I'll include them within my website: www.lifeilao.com……so don’t assume (especially for this low price) that this book is the ‘end all’: things change – perhaps more rapidly than we can cope with…..
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!!
Larry's 2011/2012/2013 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 47 years. Imagine, 47 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 24 of those years, since 1990, in China - he changed from being just a bean counter to, literally and figuratively to 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, has, for the past eleven years been writing the bi-weekly Asian Tax Review for World Wide 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 appears frequently on CNN , Wall Street Journal television, Reuters TV and CNBC. Lipsher specializes in tax issues involving nine tax jurisdictions within 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 close to 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 be 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!
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!
AND.......I dare you to access the forms included at the end off of the IRS website – follow our URLs and you'll get the forms. Try it on your own and you're in for trouble, as there's so much on the IRS site that it is either too intimidating or too impossible to navigate!
Dedications and thanks…..
To my wife and daughter, Katherine and Joanna, who put up with me – exasperatingly at times – as always, this is dedicated to the two of you.
To American Citizens Abroad, an organization fighting for the rights of the American living outside of the U.S. – what can I say other than I wish there were more of you out there!! I dedicate this book to you and I vow to work work with you more closely in the future!!!
To my reviewers, my friends – Jackie, Dorothy, and Chris – thank you, again and again and again for keeping me in line!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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 abe imposed under federal or state law or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or tax-related matter(s) addressed herein.
