Taxation of housing allowance

[stillwater]

Hi zzm9980, thank you so much for your valuable inputs. This is what I was looking for. Will look into Form 2555.

[zzm9980]

Hi zzm9980, thank you so much for your valuable inputs. This is what I was looking for. Will look into Form 2555.

Just a reminder I am not a lawyer or CPA, and anything I post is just opinions on what I think you should do and should not be construed as any kind of legal advice (I'm an American, i know how I have to make a disclaimer heh)

[stillwater]

No worries, I thought only US was run by lawyers that we have to have disclaimers on everything...

I just wanted an opinion on what some of you have done in similar situations. So your post really helped....

[ivysmom]

Great thread. I will only add that the tax liability to the company (assuming your package includes tax equalization aka tax "gross up" where the company effectively picks up all taxes in excess of what you'd pay if you'd stayed in the US) is MASSIVE if you're from the US. Perhaps allowances aren't considered taxable income in all countries, but the US gets you. When the relocation company put together our proposed package, the tax hit to the company added about 70% to the cost (if memory serves, and the allowance totals were frightening to begin with). We would also insist on the company paying for the cost of tax preparers (expensable, not capped) b/c sorting through all of it gets very complicated very quickly.

Good luck!