US: Tax declarations for offshore assets delayed

Taxpayers with assets in tax havens or with income from capital from national entities, subject to exemption rates, normally 28%, will only have to report this type of gains in the 2025 IRS declaration, even though the rule was approved in the Budget of State for this year, an official source from the Tax Authority (AT) explained to ECO.

Tax
The Tax Authorities justify the postponement with “substantive changes” such as the declarative imposition of “income subject to release rates”. The inspector, Luís Leon, from consultancy Ilya, points out “practical difficulties” in implementing the law.

“The amendment to article 57 of the State Budget Law only takes effect for the 2024 tax year, considering that it has underlying substantive changes, namely, by imposing the declaration of income subject to exemption fees”, indicated the AT in response to the questions asked by ECO. Thus, “the declaratory obligation for the 2024 tax year occurs in 2025”, he concluded.

The mandatory reporting of this type of income which, at the moment, does not have to be indicated in the IRS, such as offshore assets or national capital gains such as dividends, interest on time deposits or savings certificates, as long as they exceed 500 euros, was introduced by PS in the State Budget for 2024, as a measure to combat tax evasion.

For Luís Leon, “there is no technical reason, from the point of view of the law, for not applying declarative changes”. “There are, however, practical reasons such as the difficulty in carrying all the interest, gains and dividends reported by banks and national companies and distributing them automatically to each taxpayer, for each IRS declaration. AT’s computer system is not prepared for this”, warned the inspector.