Hi all, Its been a while since ive posted in this forum, im looking into setting up a trust in america and was looking for recommendations for a firm to deal with. Any help would be appreciated. Ben.
I am not sure how you do this? But if you are looking at purchasing property in US or shares, we set up an LLC (limited liability company) in USA use a US lawyer and our Australian Trust is the member, which means the owner of the LLC. You can take it to another level, ie certain numbers of properties per LLC to reduce exposure, using Tax free/friendlier States in USA like Wyoming. I am not an accountant or a property lawyer. I also suggest if you are going to play in US market make sure you also have a good US accountant on board. Mistakes will cost you dearly, not dealing with ATO here, IRS is a different beast. One thing I would not do is buy in my own name in US. MTR
Generally use a LLC rather than trust over there. There are different costs depending on which state you do it in. But they can still be used to buy property in other states, usually at the cost of a cross filing fee. I spoke to Megan from smat business incorporation. Highly recommend.
Establishing any entity in the USA - esp a trust can result in some local and US consequences. Perhaps even both !! Complex advice is needed. The IRS dont see trusts like we do here.
IRS does not acknowledge Australian Trusts. We pay personal tax in US partner and myself, as long as we pay our taxes no issue. However in Australia we can distribute under the Trust, I leave this to my Aussie accountant to work out, so far so good.
For most foreign trusts if the central management and control (decision making, etc) is done in australia it will be a controlled foreign trust and income attributed. An LLC will usually be a foreign hybrid company for australian tax purposes. Same attribution rules.
