Understanding Your US Renunciation Tax Return

Clients are sometime confused by the forms on their final US tax return. It may be helpful to understand that your return will be split into a resident and a nonresident portion. This is called a ‘dual-status’ tax return, which will include a Form 1040 ‘statement’ and a 1040 Nonresident ‘NR’ Tax Return. The 1040NR is considered the primary return, and it is the form where your income from worldwide sources is calculated for the portion of the year that you were a still a resident. Your income outside the US will only be reported as taxable up to your date of renunciation. The 1040 statement will often have very little, and sometimes no information on it at all, because the 1040 statement only reports your US-source income after renunciation, and is not the actual return. Note, you may lose your standard deduction, causing you to owe US tax, when normally you would owe nothing. Also, you cannot file jointly or as head of household on your last US tax return. You will also see a Form 8854, which includes a net worth statement as of your renunciation date to demonstrate whether you are subject to US exit tax. Please note that many portions of the Form 8854 will not be completed, depending on whether you are considered a covered expatriate (which is part of our analysis). Keep in mind that your exit year is not a normal year, so prepare yourself that the returns may look a little different.

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