Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/behringer-architecture-building-church-208360/ We used to think that inheritances/ gifts were something that were only for the super wealthy. Then the book "The Millionaire Next Door" came out & our ideas around who is wealthy and what that meant changed.   Now we see an increasing number of grandparents gifting their money to help out the grandkids. We are mostly familiar with gifting and inheriting money in the U.S. context. The U.S. annual exclusions for gifting are lower ($18,000/ year/donee in 2024), but the lifetime ..read more

Photo by raouf meftah: https://www.pexels.com/photo/aerial-view-of-port-de-nice-in-france-17200665/ Twenty twenty-three was a landmark year for court cases involving various foreign compliance requirements for tax residents/ citizens/ Green Card holders in the United States. Bittner, Farhy and the pending Moore case in the Supreme Court are some examples. We wrote about them here.   Court cases that involve interpretation of Tax Treaties are always fun! Especially if the interpretation is in the taxpayer's favor. In the field of foreign and cross-border tax matters, bring ..read more

  Pic Courtesy: pexels.com pexels-céline-7325997 I thought I would start off this post with how I started writing my blog and posting it on Twitter back in 2013. It is funny though isn't it, making this a "Back In The Day" post about Social Media, considering how quickly everything changes on Social Media? You see tax veterans jostling for space with not-veterans disbursing minuscule sound bytes of tax knowledge on popular platforms. I admit, I too have jumped on that wagon. I want to make sure I am one of the voices who talk about the right way of doing things without sens ..read more

Photo by Julia Volk: https://www.pexels.com/photo/view-of-the-church-of-sao-vicente-de-fora-in-lisbon-portugal-5193270 The world has always been in motion, right? The urge to travel and explore did not stop with Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus. Current post pandemic times have given workers a lot of flexibility especially about going into work. We see unprecedented levels of global movement among people between states and even countries.  As more US citizens and green card holders travel globally for work, it is not surprising they wonder if there is a need to file a state ..read more

Pic Courtesy: https://www.pexels.com/photo/gothic-towers-of-uppsala-cathedral-10894301/ Earlier in February 2023, as most tax professionals were buried under the avalanche that is tax season, a Court Case was quietly albeit significantly making its way through the US District Court for the Southern District of California intending to provide a reprieve for green card holders from having to file FBARs if they can be treated as a resident of a foreign country under treaty tie-breaker rules.  This is a HUGE deal for United States Permanent Residents living abroad if they claim tr ..read more

Stockholm Underground Train Station. Picture Courtesy pixabay We were in Stockholm, Sweden for a family trip over summer this year and were mesmerized by the art in the Underground train stations.  As stunning as these train stations are, the three important Court cases this year we are going to talk about are even more sensational in how far-reaching the consequences of the rulings might be to affected taxpayers.  I. Bittner v. United States:  As you know the Bank Secrecy Act {BSA}, requires that U.S. persons that own interest in or have signatory authority in fore ..read more

  Free Images: pixabay.com Did you know "The Buzz About Taxes" turned ten years old in February this year? This milestone would have almost passed me by if not for the fact that we started working on rebranding the firm and took stock of how far we have come since we started. Here we are, ten years in business and more than 200K views on the blog later, looking to give our brand a fresh look and launching on new adventures. I realize as I look back,  that my blog posts grew less frequent as I got busier with the practice. They just stopped two years ago as I ..read more

  Picture Courtesy: Pixabay Diwali Quick back story: My husband and I came to the United States from India about 25 years ago on a J visa. I actually became interested in US Tax Law after I had to read up all the various rules and regulations for taxation of J Visa holders in the US.  Naturally, visa holders coming to the United States to work make up a sizeable portion of our client list. The type of visas range from A to Z in the alphabet and each of them have special rules as to counting days in the United States; and taxation of their United States and/ or their world ..read more

  Picture Courtesy: Pixabay Alaska Aurora Borealis You may have now heard this ad nauseum- 2020 was the "Year of The Pivot". Everything went online and we were all for the most part working with our clients virtually.  When 2021 came by, it did not look like much was going to change with how we were doing business and networking with our colleagues. I, like many others, realized that this was a great thing to happen! People who were earlier reluctant participants in the virtual world were now embracing it with enthusiasm; we were able to reach far more people in our effort ..read more

The Sogal's: On the banks of the Tunga river, South India.  As part of our practice we work with those who are planning to immigrate to the United States or those who are already in the United States on a work-visa and are planning on applying for permanent residency.  This could not have hit closer home when my parents finally decided that it was time to listen to their children, my brother and I, and make the decision to come live with us in the United States. My father is a gentle, humble soul who with my mother lived a quiet retired life in a small but bustling ..read more