Folks,
As the post suggests I am looking for advice & to see if anyone else is in the same boat.
I am British born & bred, but hold dual nationality through my American father. Never worked or even lived in the USA, so came as a bit of shock recently when I discovered about the whole IRS tax return obligation, which i am currently sorting out with the help of an accountant.
Its further complicated by the fact that I work in as a freelancer & so supply my services as a Ltd Company, paying myself low salary & dividends as is usual, meaning I have a fairly complex & onerous filing requirement to the IRS, but with with no taxes actually owed to the IRS due to my personal higher rate tax bills in the UK.
My question is that I am considerig adding my wife as a shareholder to my Ltd company (in the UK this is possible & a legitimate way to reduce my higher rate tax bills) thereby she would receive dividends from the Ltd company.
However I am wondering where this would leave me with the US/ IRS perspective i.e would it add even more complexity (& costs) to my filing requirements or would any UK tax saved potentially end up costing me in the USA?
I should add that as my wife is a UK citizen, I have been filing my tax returns individually.