CANBERRA: Expatriate Americans with businesses in Australia are in for a nasty surprise as a result of the Trump tax plan, experts say. While much attention has been paid to the for giants like Apple and Google, in fact any dual US citizen with retained earnings in a private business located outside America will be hit.”If you own a private corporation, there’s a one-time tax that you’re going to be subject to and it’s a killer,” said Roy Berg, an American lawyer who works for Moodys Gartner Tax Law in Canada and is personally affected.
For example, a doctor with his own practice in Australia who has US dual citizenship or a green card and $2 million of accumulated wealth sitting in his corporation would have $300,000 of his hard-earned Australian dollars confiscated by the US government this year.”
White House chief economic advisor Gary Cohn has said an estimated $3 trillion in offshore wealth will be brought back to the US, although Wall Street estimates put the figure closer to $2.5 trillion.
The US tax system is almost unique in that all citizens, regardless of other nationalities they may hold and where they live, are taxed on their global income and required to file annual tax returns in the US. Expat groups had hoped the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would include switch to residence-based tax.
