I have a situation for which I'd like to see if others have insight or experience. I was unable to find any previous discussions on the questions below.
Let's say an expatriate U.S. citizen (me) and non-resident alien spouse keep a large part of their long-term investments in a non-U.S. brokerage account under the NR alien's name. All funds in the account are non-U.S.-domiciled ETFs. Up to now, all transactions in the account have been handled through the NR alien's login credentials, but the U.S. citizen spouse is the one who executes all the trades to manage this foreign-domiciled part of the marital portfolio. The U.S. citizen spouse has never reported this account in FinCEN Report 114 since the account is under the NR alien's sole name. Both spouses are nevertheless getting tired of the inconvenience of both people needing to be around in order to log into the account since it is protected by 2FA that works through the NR alien's phone.
Many brokerages allow sole owners of accounts to establish a login route for a second, non-broker-type person (typically a family member) to log in and execute trades.
Question 1: If such a login route were established for the U.S. citizen spouse, would that equate to "signature authority" under FBAR rules, and thus require the U.S. citizen spouse to include the NR alien spouse's brokerage account on the FinCEN Report 114?
I imagine that there are lots of couples in a situation where it happens that the U.S. citizen spouse is the more active one with regard to managing the the couple's assets.
Question 2: How have others handled access by the U.S. citizen spouse to the NR alien spouse's accounts?
Question 3: Should a U.S. citizen spouse be taking care to handle this in a way that stays on the right side of the FBAR "signature authority" rules, or is nobody looking?
I'd be super grateful for any insights others can offer on this.
Let's say an expatriate U.S. citizen (me) and non-resident alien spouse keep a large part of their long-term investments in a non-U.S. brokerage account under the NR alien's name. All funds in the account are non-U.S.-domiciled ETFs. Up to now, all transactions in the account have been handled through the NR alien's login credentials, but the U.S. citizen spouse is the one who executes all the trades to manage this foreign-domiciled part of the marital portfolio. The U.S. citizen spouse has never reported this account in FinCEN Report 114 since the account is under the NR alien's sole name. Both spouses are nevertheless getting tired of the inconvenience of both people needing to be around in order to log into the account since it is protected by 2FA that works through the NR alien's phone.
Many brokerages allow sole owners of accounts to establish a login route for a second, non-broker-type person (typically a family member) to log in and execute trades.
Question 1: If such a login route were established for the U.S. citizen spouse, would that equate to "signature authority" under FBAR rules, and thus require the U.S. citizen spouse to include the NR alien spouse's brokerage account on the FinCEN Report 114?
I imagine that there are lots of couples in a situation where it happens that the U.S. citizen spouse is the more active one with regard to managing the the couple's assets.
Question 2: How have others handled access by the U.S. citizen spouse to the NR alien spouse's accounts?
Question 3: Should a U.S. citizen spouse be taking care to handle this in a way that stays on the right side of the FBAR "signature authority" rules, or is nobody looking?
I'd be super grateful for any insights others can offer on this.
Statistics: Posted by Longway — Thu Aug 15, 2024 2:25 am — Replies 0 — Views 98