I realize that this forum is more UK-focused, and my question pertains to the US, but here goes anyway. Our situation is as follows:
Married, without children. Both of us work. Both of us have Swiss citizenship (he is born Swiss, I am naturalized). I worked in the US for many years, but I not a US national or a citizen. I do have US retirement accounts, one through my former employer, and one private. They are intended to be withdrawn from only after I reach the appropriate retirement age in due time.
My spouse does our taxes. We have a different understanding of what should be considered as taxable under Swiss taxation law (and our Gemeinde isn’t exactly an unbiased observer), and I am looking for a professional who can help with this.
Can anyone recommend someone? Or, even better, share similar experiences? Whenever I bring up US accounts with the Swiss financial people I have talked to, they don’t want to have anything to do with it. I did see the shout out for Taxolution and might contact them even if we don’t fall into their demographic of “expats”.
Not 100% related to OP’s question but still relevant for anyone classed as a “US person” under US tax law, which can then impact your taxes where you live:
If you’re still living abroad when you start receiving a pension and/or Social Security from the USA, note that pensions and social security do NOT count as “earned income”- and therefore one can’t use the Earned Income Exclusion on those amounts when filing US taxes.
One does not need to be a citizen or current resident of the USA to fall under US tax rules. Green card holders who never relinquished Lawful Permanent Residence are still subject to Uncle Sam’s rules.
Assume your accounts are not currently receiving any contributions. In which case you simply have to list them as Pro Memoria with a current tax value of 0 SFr. Once they mature and are paid out than they will taxed as normal assets.