Applying for a China Residence Permit

[Martin B]

It's generally a pretty complicated topic. Even inheritances among US citizens can be tricky - adding another of layer of non-residents/non-GC holders/non-citizens further muddies things up. Estate attorneys make their big bucks on these types of cases, not straightforward wills.

There are several posts on other groups and forums (like VisaJourney) about this. I remember seeing a post where someone got a massive tax bill from the IRS for adding his wife to the deed of a house he had already paid off pre-marriage. I don't think she was even a green card holder and they blew way past the gift exemption for non-citizens. Not sure what actually ended up happening, whether they fought it, or ended up paying it. 

One reason why my wife naturalized was so we can avoid all of these issues.

[Randy W]

3 hours ago, Barfus said:

It's generally a pretty complicated topic. Even inheritances among US citizens can be tricky - adding another of layer of non-residents/non-GC holders/non-citizens further muddies things up. Estate attorneys make their big bucks on these types of cases, not straightforward wills.

There are several posts on other groups and forums (like VisaJourney) about this. I remember seeing a post where someone got a massive tax bill from the IRS for adding his wife to the deed of a house he had already paid off pre-marriage. I don't think she was even a green card holder and they blew way past the gift exemption for non-citizens. Not sure what actually ended up happening, whether they fought it, or ended up paying it. 

One reason why my wife naturalized was so we can avoid all of these issues.

Yes - but living in China, you have the option of minimizing or eliminating entirely your US footprint. There would be no advantage whatsoever to have my wife naturalize. I have no US assets except for financial assets.

What I'm saying is that living in the US, YOU face these issues. We don't.

"I remember seeing a post where someone got a massive tax bill from the IRS for adding his wife to the deed of a house he had already paid off pre-marriage" - my guess is that it was treated as a sale and re-purchase for tax purposes. I knew that adding my wife's name to my own deed would do exactly that - I never considered doing that. I put her on my bank account, and got her on a credit card or two, plus one of her own (Macy's made it VERY easy for someone with no credit to get a card). No tax ramifications.

It's important to be aware of tax issues - that's why I've ALWAYS filed my own taxes. I've only had two issues with the IRS. Both were settled in my favor, even though I was in the wrong on one of them (it WAS my mistake, but they simply forgot why they had sent me a bill without providing a reason). Until recently, that is. I now use TurboTax, which for me takes ALL the stress out of filing.

"Even inheritances among US citizens can be tricky - adding another of layer of non-residents/non-GC holders/non-citizens further muddies things up." - this is not true. The Estate doesn't care about the immigrations status of the beneficiaries. That burden is ENTIRELY on the beneficiaries. A "non-US person" as a beneficiary, though, yes has complications IF they have transactions that need to be made in the US. Like I've said, though, that is not a real problem in part because it's covered simply by mandatory withholding.

Be careful about following advice online. Visa Journey is especially prone to giving VERY non-professional and unknowledgeable advice, which tends to go "viral" among people who frequent sites like that. Just be aware and check out what they say for yourself (including everything here). Expats in China are the same way - they will frequently tell you "<____fill in the blank_____> is illegal in China - they just don't enforce it". When I was told I was working illegally in China because I didn't have a Z-visa, I simply quit that group (no useful information there).

 

Edited November 17, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)