Looking to fess up my old income to the US government. What if you haven’t filed with the us for a very long time? … I wanted to get old printouts. I called Taipei. They only said that they keep five years on file and by law they must delete old information. The US IRS should learn.
What does that mean? If there is no document to prove or disprove old income… what do I fill out on my back us tax returns. Me thinks I will eventually need an official tax preparer.
Assuming you kept no copies of anything…previous employers have any records?
How would they establish what you owe if records were not kept? We are talking very low income here anyway… Just earn the family pin money…
Well, they play an interesting game…Taiwan actually does keep records longer than 5 years in terms of enforcement, but if say you request a copy of your tax return, they will say they only keep 5 years worth.
Just discovered this online…
he IRS has declared filing three years back taxes is adequate for most US expat tax filers who are delinquent and there shall be no penalties for late FBARs (Foreign Bank Account Reports) from those who were unaware of the requirement to file.
This brings a clarity and welcome relief to many American expatriates who in the past may have been reluctant to file US income taxes because there was no assurance that they would not be further harassed (or assessed exorbitant penalties and fees) because they simply didn’t know – or they didn’t trust the potential outcome if they did attempt to come forward and become compliant with US tax laws …
The online tax accounting firm, Bright!Tax, which exclusively serves Americans living abroad, had originally interpreted the three year rule as the best option for its clients and that opinion is now fully endorsed by the IRS itself. The IRS has clarified that, for Americans living overseas who are delinquent in filing their US income taxes, filing three years back taxes will bring the vast majority (those who owed less than $1500 per year) into full compliance with new IRS rules. This is confirmed on the IRS website itself…
source: brighttax.com/8/post/2012/08 … liant.html
Hi, is 5 years’ worth of Taiwan individual tax document record keeping enough time scope as a general rule of thumb? (Either as a foreigner or as a citizen?)
Yes. If you own a business, toss in an extra two years.
If you’re the typical worker in Taiwan, holding onto your official tax statements are generally good enough. You needn’t keep itemized lists of all of your deductions (though it’s easy enough to do so digitally nowadays).
Thanks! If you get audited as an individual from the Taiwan government, what’s the rule for maintaining records?