Conditional residency and leaving country....

[nireehamdi]

QUestion on: What if coniditonal residency
husband or wife....during this period decides]
to return to home country and work for a period]of time....(I would assume it would have to be a
short period like 6 months to a year)....or the
case might be thought of as abandoned.....also, what about filing income taxes....I would assume
that foreign income has to be counted.. but I
do not know.... ANY COMMENTS.... Thanks.

[nireehamdi]

QUestion on: What if coniditonal residency
husband or wife....during this period decides]
to return to home country and work for a period]of time....(I would assume it would have to be a
short period like 6 months to a year)....or the
case might be thought of as abandoned.....also, what about filing income taxes....I would assume
that foreign income has to be counted.. but I
do not know.... ANY COMMENTS.... Thanks.

[Depo Man]

I smell something fishy; are you the alien who pretends to be USC on this board?

[nireehamdi]

Sorry, no I am not...I am the US citizen....
i am not a pretender at much of anything.

[Arun]

nireehamdi, R u still that same guy ? I have read your past post. Is he still having his girlfriend ?

[Pasha Patel]

Hi nireehamdi ,

I hope everything is going well with you... I can only answer to part of your questions... no it wont be considered as residency abandoned if he/she goes out of country for 6 months... but make sure he comes back before his conditional green card expires... if he plans to stay for more than a year then he will have to obtain a reentry permit before leaving USA ....

I don't think foreign income can be counted in income tax as its not earned in USA but I have no idea about this... well if u guys are filing jointly then it wouldn't matter even if he didn't work for some period...but I may be wrong on this one...I m no tax expert...so ask 4now about this...I m sure 4now will competently answer to this one...good luck...Pasha

[ARQU]

Income generates Tax liabilty somewhere... Simple as that.

There are a thousand considerations but basically if you earn income in a foreign country, you will have to claim it as income and pay tax on it in BOTH coutries (ie: double tax). However, many countries have tax treaties between them (ie: US & Canada) that allows you to claim a foreign tax credit and therefore wipe out the 'lower' tax of the two (you will pay the higher rate to either the foreign country or the US).

I am no tax expert so I could be very wrong on all this. However, I can speak from experience that if I earn income in Canada (or have assets that are taxable), then I am subject to Revenue Canada's taxation as well as the IRS on that income. I can claim the US tax as a credit on my Canadian tax filing, but will have to pay the 15% or so difference to Canada. (45% vs 30% or whatever it works out to).

As I mentioned, this is only my take on this. I would STRONGLY advise you to consult the appropriate tax laws of the two countries involved (ie: US & ?) to see if it is even worth working outside the US or not. OFTEN IT IS NOT!

ARQU