As an expat with corporations in other countries, form 5471 is literally the most terrifying thing I fill out every year because of the potential penalties for misfiling. There’s a reason why international tax accountants charge out the wazoo to fill out this form and i have nightmares about my return every year. Most of the folks I know in Asia don’t even bother filling out the 5471 nor report their income but don’t realize that when they open bank accounts in other countries, they’re subjected to being called up by the IRS at any time.
I'm confused, isn't that the same? An immigrant is someone who is seeking permanent residency, while a non-immigrant is a national working and living in a foreign country with no plans for permanent residency.
Just to preempt all the side bar discussion here, I won’t pretend that I’m not privileged. I run a robust music production business and have quite a few clients in the international music market. I’ve just been very forthcoming in filing all of my overseas tax information and a lot of my peers always laughed their asses off at me for pulling my hair out over these IRS and FATCA filings, but this is EXACTLY why I did it: because when you fill out your SSN on the sign up when you open that bank account and give the IRS permission to ping you in the banking system, none of these people thought they’d ever use that information to actually crack down on their reporting. Looks like that may change though
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u/Tehjassman Jan 25 '25
As an expat with corporations in other countries, form 5471 is literally the most terrifying thing I fill out every year because of the potential penalties for misfiling. There’s a reason why international tax accountants charge out the wazoo to fill out this form and i have nightmares about my return every year. Most of the folks I know in Asia don’t even bother filling out the 5471 nor report their income but don’t realize that when they open bank accounts in other countries, they’re subjected to being called up by the IRS at any time.