Chile Forum

So, you know it is the lovely time of year again. U.S. tax season.

Strangely I came across Form 90-22.1 which you are required to file by June 15 if your total accounts outside the country are more than $10,000, and you have signing authority or control over them. This form is not sent to the IRS however, it is sent to the treasury department.

Now in all my years of bouncing around the World, and all the time I have spent with expat Americans, especially the more paranoid ones, I have never once heard any of them mention this form or even complain about it (and you know how much they like to complain).

I am just curious if anyone really files this?

Now I know if you don't and you should, you likely do not want to post it to a public forum. That is fair. You can like shuffle your feet or something.

Every year I insist on driving myself crazy trying to understand the tax code. You would think with a masters degree in analytic philosophy I could at least follow along. Every year about this time I really start wonder if I am some how mentally damaged (which perhaps I am a bit), but then you come to find out it was because it was written by idiots. Then I feel better again until next year.

Perhaps someday I will surrender and just hire someone to do my taxes. For now, I feel like it is a form of civil disobedience to figure out how not to pay one more penny than I absolutely have to without breaking the rules. Like that money might really amount to one thread, on one screw, of one missile that would have killed someone I don't even know, and I am not particularly upset at. More likely, they will just cut health care for someone I do know and put the thread on the screw anyway; or, at least put the screws to me with it.

and here is the kicker to it:

Convert foreign currency by using the official
exchange rate at the end of the year. In valuing currency of a country that
uses multiple exchange rates, use the rate which would apply if the
currency in the account were converted into United States dollars at the
close of the calendar year.

So far, I go in to this process every year knowing I don't owe them any money. It is just more a matter of how much paperwork will I have to do that year to prove I don't owe them any money. Last year it was 5 days, and at least 20 different forms and schedules, filled out 100 times, to make sure that I got them right. I generally as a rule keep filling out forms until I can sleep well at night knowing I could defend myself in an audit. Then I fill out one more for good measure.

It alway strikes me as strange that if you want to just pay a bunch of tax, there is not that many forms to fill out. If you don't owe taxes, the forms never seem to end. There is always just one more.

paying taxes is a joy in Chile. 5 mins online at the IRS web site, and then figure out how you are going to spend your refund (if you got one coming that is).

If they ever got rid of the exclusions / deductions however for Americans living oversees, I might seriously consider giving up my passport. The first thing the Bush administration did when they came in to office was try to kill it. Luckily that died a quick death in Congress. I don't think it went over to well with their low life corporate oil buddies either, considering they where about to send them all to Iraq for 6+ years to work.

yea, my little bit of research on this form is that it was added just in 2004, which likely explains why I have not heard more people complain about it.

They recently added a $10,000 fine for "none willfully" not filing it, and up to $250,000 plus 5 years in prison for "willfully" not filing it. I take this to mean situations where your accountant hides your money in an off shore account without telling you, and you fail to file this form they will slap you with a $10,000 fine. Or, in the case of a lot of expats, I bet it would be simply not knowing it exist. It is not filed with your tax return. It is filed separately.

This is likely not much of s concern for many gringos in Chile. The banks would not open you an account anyway.

There does not seem to be any requirement for declaring your gold however. Which really has me thinking.