I did a search on this site and it appears that there are many different answers about the taxation of 2nd pillar lump sum distributions, so here is my specific situation:
- German Citizen, moved to U.S. in Nov 1997 on anon-immigrant visa
- Green Card in 2000
- U.S. citizen in 2006
I worked and lived 8 years in Switzerland before moving to the U.S. During that time, I paid into a Swiss 2nd pillar/Pensionkasse. I made no more payments after moving into the U.S., but the fund accumulated deferred interest. The Pensionskasse will now cancel my membership by end of 2014 and I will be forced to receive the whole investment as a lump sum payment minus the Swiss‘Quellensteuer’.
I did declare the Swiss 2 nd pillar on the IR Sand Dept of Treasury forms all these years as ‘foreign deferred interest account’.
Questions:
- I assume that I will have to report all the deferred interest since Nov 1997 on my 2014 1040 Schedule B as an ordinary income, is that correct? I am ok with that...
I will not have to declare any employee and employer contributions to the plan as income because they are from before I became tax liable in theU.S., correct?
- Can I declare the Quellensteuer paid inSwitzerland for foreign tax credit? Or should I get the Swiss Tax back as partof the US-Swiss Tax Treaty? I saw a Swiss form for re-imbursement of Quellensteuer that needs to be signed by a 'US tax respesentative'. Who would actually sign this in the US?
Any advice is appreciated... Sorry if I overlooked the correct answer in my search...