Accessing Roth IRA after renouncing citizenship

My partner renounced her US citizenship around 5 years ago, she has now reached the age of 60 and needs to start withdrawing funds from her Roth IRA. Tax was paid on funds going in so there should be no tax due on withdrawal, she declared the existence of the fund when she renounced.
The entire process of renouncing and the need to do it caused her great anxiety and now she has reached the point of needing to access this account, the anxiety is returning, she is convince she is going to lose the lot!
Can anybody offer any advice or reassurance before she takes the plunge?
Any help would be very much appreciated

No actual experience here but she should be able to withdraw her funds as needed tax free.

It doesn't matter that the account should only available to US citizens and she is no longer a US citizen?

It doesn't matter that the account should only available to US citizens and she is no longer a US citizen?

Roth accounts are available to non-citizens, I’m certain of that. While in the USA my wife and I opened and contributed to Roth IRAs  while we were non-citizens. You can’t open a new Roth account if you are non-resident but you can withdraw funds if you are non-resident, regardless of citizenship.

Has she even attempted to make a withdrawal? Who is telling her that she can’t withdraw her own money?

No she hasn't attempted to make a withdrawal as she has been too afraid. When she lived in America and opened the account she was under the impression that they were only available to US citizens and having renounced she may be now be denied access or at least have to pay penalty tax on withdrawals as a none US citizen. Would she need to have a US postal address to make a withdrawal or can she do it from the UK?

No she hasn't attempted to make a withdrawal as she has been too afraid. When she lived in America and opened the account she was under the impression that they were only available to US citizens and having renounced she may be now be denied access or at least have to pay penalty tax on withdrawals as a none US citizen. Would she need to have a US postal address to make a withdrawal or can she do it from the UK?

That depends on which brokerage her Roth is held at. I have my Roth at Vanguard in the USA and I opened a Wise US dollar account from the UK. The Wise account has a US bank routing and account number and I have it linked to my Vanguard Roth. I make withdrawals every year and the money goes into my Wise bank account which I then transfer to my UK bank account.

As long as she is older than 59.5 years and has held the Roth for at least 5 years then there will be no penalties for withdrawal.

Thank you, your help is much appreciated

ROTH accounts are available to people with US earned income irrespective of their citizenship. However, I can understand your worries given current events. Your wife should contact her ROTH provider and ask to make a withdrawal. There might be some "withholding tax" of about 30% if the money is going to a non-US address and you'll have to claim that back from the IRS. The withholding policy will depend on your provider and the details of your banking/address as durhamlad points out.

Thanks Nun
Like durhamlad her account is with Vanguard so hopefully if she opens a Wise dollar account it won't be a problem

Thanks Nun
Like durhamlad her account is with Vanguard so hopefully if she opens a Wise dollar account it won't be a problem

That should work great.

Once she has her Wise USD account she can log on and add it to her Vanguard account. They will then send 3 micro amounts to the account which she will see come in and log back into Vanguard to report those sums. (All 3 deposits will less than a $)

Vanguard then make some more security checks behind the scenes, and the whole process takes 7 to 10 working days, but once it is set up it works great. Pretty sure Vanguard will withhold 30% of what she withdraws so she will have to claim that back from the IRS with a tax return.

A couple of years back my wife cashed in her entire Roth account using her Wise USD account, transferred it to the UK and bought 2 buy-to-let houses here.

She was hoping her dealings with the IRS had come to and end!
Is it a fairly straightforward procedure for a none US citizen to submit a tax return? She obviously won't have a US tax ID or social security ID. We have in the past looked locally for anybody able to offer US tax advice and found nothing. More recently we contacted a London firm offering US tax services hoping to get some help with this IRA but their reply was simply "Many thanks for your enquiry but unfortunately, our firm does not have capacity at the present time to assist you" which seems very odd

 

She could submit a form to Vanguard to stop the tax withholding showing that she is a non resident alien.

This is form W8-Ben

https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-w-8-ben

Give Form W-8 BEN to the withholding agent or payer if you are a foreign person and you are the beneficial owner of an amount subject to withholding.

Submit Form W-8 BEN when requested by the withholding agent or payer whether or not you are claiming a reduced rate of, or exemption from, withholding.

Thank you

If all else fails and she has to file to get a refund then she doesn't need a social security number.  She would file a 1040-NR and in the space for identifying number she would put her old SSN which also also doubles as a TIN (Tax Identity Number) and will be how the IRS can find her. The 1099-R she will receive from Vanguard after her Roth distributions will almost certainly have her old SSN listed on it I would think.

https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-1040-nr

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040nr.pdf

Once again, thank you. Finding this forum and your advice has been a godsend