I’m thinking of buying my own little apartment. Let’s say I buy for 1,000,000 NT and sell it 2 months later for 1,100,000.
Does Taiwan have different tax rates for income earned teaching English vs. capital gains? Or is all of it taxed at the same rate, depending on your total income + capital gains at the end of the year?
Will Uncle Sam want a chunK? I’ve heard the first large chunk of foreign-source income ($80,000?) is essentially not taxed by the U.S. But is that just income from an employer? Or would capital gains be treated the same way as earned income?
Only ‘Earned Income’ (i.e. your paycheck) can be excluded from your US taxes. All other income is still taxable by the US government if you are a US citizen even if you’ve not been home for years and your income has no tie to the US. However, there are also capital gain exemptions for up to US$250k for singles or US$500k for married couples if you sell your primary residence and lived in it a minimum amount of time.
I appreciate your response. Any clue about how long something needs to be my primary residence? Any clue what do investors do to avoid double taxation? I suppose I could take a look at the U.S. tax code online if someone could point me to the right section.
Generally you need to have owned and lived in the home for at least 2 of the past 5 years. As for double taxation, the US allows you to use foreign tax paid as a tax credit, so you generally do not ‘double’ your taxation. However, this effectively means that you pay whatever the higher rate is.
OK, that makes more sense. Basically, I was wondering if the FTC applied to only earned income or also to capital gains. I guess I could have worded my question more clearly. Thanks for your clarification!