I see
iota/iota2014 has taken leave again so I'll complete the last post made concerning the Phil Hodgen blog comment on 8854 and State pensions.
Let's start with the bad news first; Hodgen only discusses US Social Security. He makes no reference to other foreign State pensions. It will be up to the reader to decide if what applies to US SS will also apply to foreign State pensions (UK State Pension).
Before we go to the good news, we need to understand two premises first. Hodgen believes:
"If you have an annuity, you have a right to receive an income stream for life. That is an asset to be reported on the Form 8854 and counted toward your net worth.
If you have a pension, you have the right to receive a lump sum or an income stream for the rest of your life. That counts as an asset on the Form 8854 balance sheet, too."The good news; Hodgen believes US Social Security should
not be included on the balance sheet to determine assets.
"Yet you do not list Social Security as an asset on Form 8854 – as one of your assets. Why is Social Security different? You own a right to receive a predictable amount of retirement benefits at a certain age. How is that not an asset?
•With your pension, you have a contractual right enforceable in court to receive the specified benefits from the pension plan.
•With your annuity, you have a contractual right enforceable in court to receive the annuity income stream that was promised to you.
But with Social Security, you have no enforceable rights. You have a unilateral promise by the U.S. government to pay you money. And the U.S. government can change its mind at any time, and alter the bargain with you.
In short, you have no court-enforceable property right to receive Social Security benefits. You have a hope, an expectation, a belief that you will receive Social Security benefits. You do not have a property right. Flemming v. Nestor, 363 U.S. 603 (1960).
Hope (that you will someday collect Social Security) is not an asset. You do not report it as part of your net worth on Form 8854."
http://hodgen.com/why-social-security-does-not-go-on-the-form-8854-balance-sheet/One persons viewpoint, albeit one we would like to believe. Unfortunately, it's not a legal opinion. There's also still the question as to whether or not the above stance would be applicable to a UK State Pension. A recipient of the UK State Pension does not, to my understanding, have a
'court enforceable property right to receive' benefits.
