US Expatriation Tax Is NOT Just an Exit Tax: Consider the Next Generation

Citizens and green card holders who think about exiting the US are probably aware of the expatriation tax at exit. Most assets are deemed sold and taxed accordingly. However, the tax at exit does not end a covered expatriate's relationship with the IRS. The expatriation tax regime in fact includes gift and estate tax components that follow a covered expatriate for life and then after death, perhaps long after death.

These components apply to covered expatriates regardless of their previous gifting history and regardless of their net worth at death. In tax lingo, there is no lifetime gift tax exemption amount, nor is there an applicable exemption amount. US taxpayers who would never have to pay US gift or estate (inheritance) taxes may be subject to both if they expatriate. 

BBC: Vermont–Quebec Border Conflict Continues

photo: Laura Carpenter (Newport Daily Express)

Early this year Derby Line, Vermont and Stanstead, Quebec got into a row over long simmering issues and the Stansteaders sealed the border—with flower pots. These are not 800 pounders, like the ones at US government building entrances post 9/11. No, these are… just flower pots. Now the controversy has caught the attention of the BBC. Check out this December 11 BBC television report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20649024.

It's sad that the painted white line that alone marked the international border is gradually being replaced by less friendly symbols of the nation-state. The feds make life more complicated than it needs to be--no surprise there.

Peoples' diplomacy: Talk. Be candid. Be fair. Keep it simple. Stay friends.

et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis

[And on Earth peace and goodwill to all]

Marijuana, Green Cards, and Cross-Border Planning

For generations, immigrants to the U.S. have undergone a medical exam. For most, the exam has been an uneventful step in the long road to a green card. That medical exam is much more interesting now. The current CIS medical exam form (I-693) solicits information about prior drug use (Civil Surgeon Worksheet, Section 3).

The physician instructions that accompany the form discuss the circumstances under which drug abuse or addiction would be a medical ground for inadmissibility (denial of a green card application). What the medical exam form instructions do not explain is that there is also a  criminal ground for inadmissibility based on simple possession. Translation: in the course of explaining to the physician that you are not and never were addicted to marijuana, you concede that you used marijuana--and that can get you excluded. 'Sound a little unfair?? Welcome to the twisted world of marijuana and cross-border planning!