Is Foreign Retirement Income Taxable In The US?

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Hi there, Stan the Annuity Man, America's annuity agent, licensed in all 50 states

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and Puerto Rico. And today's topic is unique, but one I want to address. Is foreign income

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taxable with annuities? But a bigger question is, can you own annuities outside the US? So,

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we're going to talk about all of that. And I've been doing this for a long,

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long time, decades, top agent in the country, the founder and pioneer of what's called CGO, the

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contractual guarantees only approach to annuities. But there's a lot of people that are expatriating,

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i.e., leaving the country for a myriad of reasons. And again, I'm not political,

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I'm contractual, but we're going to cover all of that and how it works after this.

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So, is foreign retirement income taxable in the US? So, it's kind of a weird question, but I'm

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going to take it in a different approach. There's a lot of people that are leaving the country,

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and this has been happening for the last 20, 30 years since I've been doing this. They've been

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leaving. It seems like a lot more are doing it right now. But in the life insurance and

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annuity business, because life insurance companies issue annuities, and the fixed

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annuity side for lifetime income, SPIAs, DIAs, QLACs, Income Riders, that's regulated at the state level. Now,

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if you are getting ready to move to Mexico, Nicaragua, Venezuela, anywhere,

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Dr. V behind the camera, Venezuela. If you're doing that, you have to purchase the annuity

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here in the United States. The paperwork has to be signed here in the United States in your

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state of residence, and with DocuSign and all of these other things that life insurance companies

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that issue annuities are using. They can actually track where you're signing. Okay? Now, that can be

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done as long as you're a resident of that state at that time. So, a lot of people come to me and say,

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"Stan the Annuity Man, America's annuity agent, licensed in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, we're

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getting ready to move to Nicaragua." Okay, great. But we want to set up the lifetime income stream

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before we leave. Okay, great. We can do that, but you have to sign it in the state of residence,

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and it has to be funded here. Because I think a fun fact a lot of people don't know,

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before Bitcoin and cryptocurrency hit a long time ago, and I do remember that, annuities

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and life insurance were the number one place for money laundering. Okay? And, you know, the cryptos

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have taken that over, obviously, but it's still there. And ever since the Patriot Act, we have to

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go through a lot of hoops and a lot of things to make sure that the money is for who it's for and

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who you say it's for and where it is. We got to do a lot of research on that. And we do.

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But I just had a couple the other day. They were consulting me and said, "Okay, we're going to move

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out of the country, and it's permanent, but we want to buy the lifetime income stream." Now,

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my recommendation to them and to anyone that's considering that is, number one, sit down

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with your CPA, sit down with the tax lawyer, and figure out the tax game initially and how that's

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going to be played out because I'm not going to provide that information or advice. Someone that's

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certified in tax is going to do that. But what I do recommend is choosing a bank that is global.

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So, I said, in this case, I think they're going to Nicaragua— Venezuela, what I said— what's the

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big banks down there? And they said some banks that are big here that have branches over there.

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I'm like, that's where you need to choose it because the payment's going to hit that account,

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and you're going to be in that other country. So, you have to have some— it's got to be clean, it's

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got to be efficient. But from the standpoint of taxation, that's where it gets a little murky,

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and that's when I step back. I bring in the tax lawyers and the CPAs to comment and advise on

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taxation ongoing. But the bottom line is, you know, retirement income in a foreign country,

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that's not the United States— it can happen. We can structure it properly. It's just the taxation

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ongoing that's kind of the question mark that I'm not going to be a part of, but we certainly

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have been involved with this hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times. I just think my biggest

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advice is let's choose a quality carrier. Let's choose a carrier that's A+ or better for lifetime

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income. And then you choose a bank or a banking institution that's global, that has locations in

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Chicago and LA and Atlanta and New York and Austin and Dallas and Nicaragua. Okay? That would make it

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a lot easier. And that will make the— you know, we have to explain to the carriers what's going

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on, etc. And we're very upfront about that, but it can be done. From the taxation standpoint,

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I think a lot of that has to do with if you're going to go over there permanently or if you're

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going to go there some of the time and then come back and still have a residency in the states

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here. If you're moving from New Mexico to Nicaragua, but you're going to keep

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your New Mexico residency, obviously you're going to pay taxes as a resident even though

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you're going to be over there. But again, very, very complicated tax issues— you have

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to step up. Don't do AI research on it and try to figure it out yourself. You have to get with

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a CPA and a tax lawyer to make sure all your i's are dotted and your t's are crossed. But

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it can happen. It does happen. We do hundreds of them a year. And we're working in conjunction

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with those experts. We're just the facilitator to find the highest contractual guarantee for your

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specific situation and structuring it properly so that if it's joint life, that it's going to

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pay for as long as one of you is breathing. And if you want to make sure that 100% of the money

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goes to the beneficiaries if you pass away, we'll structure it that way, too. Remember,

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these are commodity products. So, you know, we're going to shop all carriers for the highest

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contractual guarantee. Do me one last favor. Above my head, you'll see a ticking clock. And the good

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news is it's about lifetime income. That's a video I did, kind of a foundational video of how I view

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lifetime income, why it's a bargain right now, how it's priced, what you need to focus on, that it's

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a commodity product. But you need to watch that video if you're looking at lifetime income. And

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if you're looking to expatriate, leave the country, and you need to view that.

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And then you need to contact me, I would tell you. You can do a free consultation with my team,

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go to my site at theannuityman.com. But most likely they're going to refer this case to me,

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and I'm going to personally handle it just to make sure everything's done because I've done this a

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few decades, seen it, done it, been to the annuity rodeo, as they say. So, with that being said,

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as they say in that milk ad, "Got milk?" how about "Got guarantees?" See you next time.