Mel Whitney

International tax planning legally structures global income, assets, and business activity to manage worldwide tax while meeting US and foreign rules. For 2025 returns filed in 2026, two core tools are Form 2555 for the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion and Form 1116 for the Foreign Tax Credit. US citizens and Green Card holders generally...

Form 8288 reports and transmits US tax withheld when certain foreign persons dispose of US real property interests. For a standard FIRPTA sale, the buyer or other withholding agent generally withholds 15% of the amount realized and files the return with the IRS within 20 days after the transfer date. Th...

FATCA stands for the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act – a 2010 US law that requires foreign banks to report accounts held by US persons to the IRS and requires US taxpayers with foreign financial assets above set thresholds to file Form 8938 w...

The US foreign tax credit is a nonrefundable credit that reduces your US tax bill by the amount of qualifying income tax you paid or accrued to a foreign government on foreign-source income also subject to US tax. It is calculated on ...

The Delinquent FBAR filing procedures historically covered an FBAR-only probl...

FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts – a disclosure filed separately from your federal income tax return through FinCEN’s BSA E-Filing system, not with the IRS. If the a...