TheMarinator wrote:Does anyone know any tax accountants/advisors in Finland who understand both Finnish and USA tax laws? An example, if I earn money from investments in the USA is it better to file a tax return in the USA and pay the taxes there, or is better to declare the income in Finland and pay the taxes here?
Only now do I notice what everyone seems to be overlooking. Are you even a U.S. citizen? Your flags look to me like Australia (or NZ?) and Austria.
If you're a non-US resident, non-US citizen, that changes things quite a bit. Your US income should normally have taxes withheld in excess of your probable liability before you ever receive the income. (I believe -- I haven't been in that situation myself, but as a US business owner, I would be required to perform such withholding on virtually any type of significant personal income you received through my business.) That is the only income of yours that would be taxable in the US, of course. Filing in the US would probably get some part of those taxes refunded. All you need for that, as a non-US resident and non-US citizen is a garden-variety US tax preparer, though it's always good to have a CPA.
I called up a CPA friend here in my city (in the US) who works for one of the Big 4 US accounting firms to get an idea of the billing rates for their specialists in cross-national taxation. She doesn't know those people personally but she guessed you'd be looking at $300-500 / hour, IF they have people with expertise in Finnish personal taxation at all. (And you sure don't want to be paying them to learn...) Of course it's generally corporations and very wealthy people who are using these services. If your situation is more complicated than you've told us and/or a lot of money is involved, it could be worth it. Otherwise talk to a Certified Public Accountant in the US who does personal taxes and get a little advice. Talk to someone in Finland who understands Finnish taxation. You might have to convey a couple of rounds of back-and-forth between them. But considering the rarity and price of someone who understands both systems, I still doubt you have such a complex, high-dollar situation that you need to be paying thousands.
There are some 2000-3000 Americans in Finland now, probably close to 1,000 households. A significant proportion, possibly a majority, must have bank and brokerage accounts in the US. Many will also have houses they are renting out. I assume that virtually all of them manage to get their taxes filed. I know I did, quite possibly while raamv was still in diapers.
I'm not saying you shouldn't talk to an expert. In fact, I was pretty clear in earlier posts that you SHOULD talk to an expert on both sides of the Atlantic. But unless you run into a dead end, I doubt your situation needs the kind of high-priced corporate accountant that would have all the knowledge in a single person. And if it does, the lesser experts will inform you of their inability to handle your situation.
I have no idea what raamv
specifically thinks is wrong in this and my other suggestions and observations. He's welcome to spell it out, but he was kinda vague about that, wasn't he? Maybe he can even point you to an accountant who IS specialized in US/Finnish personal tax returns at a price far below what I'm hearing. And that would be excellent. Highly constructive. In that case, go for it. Otherwise maybe he needs to settle back with a warm, relaxing cup of STFU. Between raamv and Penelope, my money would be on Penelope as the person more likely to give you sound, specific advice and to tell you when she just doesn't know and can't find out.
Meanwhile every competent technologist understands that if a problem is too complex to solve in one piece, you can often solve it by splitting it into two or more problems that are easily manageable in themselves.
