Green Card abandonment and taxes

History: I am a UK citizen with a green card, wife is US citizen.  Kids are dual citizens.

I have recently moved back to the UK with the family and at this point we have no intention of returning at this point to the US except for an occasional family visit. 

We have recently disposed of all assets in the US.  Still have a 401K and checking accounts there but that's it.  Obviously we will get 1099's etc for this tax year.

Should i officially send in an abandonment of my green card,  that way I have official recognition?

Should it be done now,  would i technically be a non resident and subject to higher taxes for the year,  or should I do that on Dec 31st so I can start next year as a non resident and not need to file any tax returns?

Then only my wife would need to file tax returns.

Thanks.

If you are certain you want to abandon the Green Card I'd send in an I-407 and then an 8854 if you were a Long Term Resident. If you didn't meet the LTR criteria I don't know if you need to do anything for the IRS other than filing NRA taxes for anything you have in the US.

The 8854 is mandatory to be filed with the US income tax return in the year of expatriation if a long-term resident (long-term is having held the green card for 8 of the past 15 tax years).

As nun says one needs to file an I-407 or one has not expatriated at all for tax purposes.

Form 8854 has not been updated yet to include any 2013 dates ( my assumption is that it will be soon).

In reading the 2012 form it asks long term residents if they have notified Home Land Security.

Not sure what the process is for that, but hopefully it won't be a hassle.  Keeping fingers crossed that someone here knows the process or can give a link to a website with the information

Welcome to the fiscal cliff! It is impossible to prepare or file a single US tax return for 2012 yet while Congress dallies.

The current IRS approach has been to issue the same forms as for 2011 replacing the descriptions on any lines where provisions have elapsed with the word “Reserved”.

You'll have to wait for Congress to agree what to do and then for the IRS to program and test hundreds of forms and scenarios based on whatever the law turns out to have been during 2012.