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What US tax problems are inside my foreign investment portfolio?

A foreign brokerage account, a PEA or a TFSA, a handful of UCITS ETFs, some French or Canadian tax already paid — each one raises its own US question, and they interact. Pick what you hold and how you are filed, and get one map: which reporting forms are in play, whether the funds are PFICs, whether the local tax is creditable and against what, and whether the 3.8% reaches the income. One next step at the end, never a checkout by default.

About you

Are you a US citizen, green-card holder or US resident for the year?

Sets the threshold: $200,000 single or head of household · $250,000 joint or surviving spouse · $125,000 married filing separately.

Your investments

Do you hold an account at a non-US bank or broker?
Do you hold any fund or ETF that is not US-domiciled?

Including inside a wrapper or a pension you choose the investments of.

Combined peak of every non-US account during the year

The highest the total reached at any moment, not the year-end.

Which of these do you hold?

The wrapper decides a lot of the US answer. Tick every one that applies.

Your income, in bands

Bands only. Nothing you choose here leaves your browser unless you ask for the result by email.

Everything — salary, investment income, pensions — with any foreign earned income exclusion added back. The exclusion does not lower this number.

What kinds of investment income?
Did you pay income tax abroad on that investment income?

Your US filing history

Are your US returns filed for every past year?
Was Form 8621 filed for the non-US funds in past years?
Were FBARs filed for the years they were due?

Free · no account · bands only. A first screen on bands.

Before you rely on this result

What would settle it, and what covers it

Documents or facts needed

  • • Year-end and peak balances for every non-US account
  • • The legal name, ISIN and domicile of every fund or ETF, including those inside a wrapper
  • • Local tax statements for the year (an IFU, T3 / T5 / T5008 slips) showing income, gains and tax withheld
  • • The last year each US form — return, FBAR, Form 8621 — was filed

Where this leads

Free Portfolio Scan · $0 — the scanner settles the PFIC question per holding before any package is chosen.

Also possible: Simple ($299) · PFIC Portfolio ($499). The cheapest route that covers your facts is the right one; a package never covers more than one tax year.

How to read a status

Likely:
The facts entered meet the published test; confirm the inputs before acting.
Possible:
Some facts point this way and others are missing; more information decides it.
Needs review:
These inputs leave it open; a person should look before filing.
Not currently indicated:
Nothing entered triggers it this year; a changed fact can change the answer.
Outside supported scope:
This item is routed to a professional for preparation.

Scope. An issue map from what you selected: a product's US character (an assurance-vie, a TFSA in trust form, a pension) is settled by a person from its terms, and every band says so. This is a computation on the answers you gave, not individualized tax advice.

Tool: /tools/investment-health-check

What changes the result

This answer changes if…

Whether a fund is treated as a PFIC

  • …the fund is held inside a pension or retirement arrangement the U.S. recognises for this purpose — a treaty-recognised pension can take the fund out of Form 8621 reporting for the years it stays inside.
  • …the fund turns out to be U.S.-registered under a European-sounding name — a U.S.-registered fund is not a PFIC at all; the ISIN decides it. Check it
  • …the instrument is a note or a certificate rather than a fund — an exchange-traded note or a structured certificate is a debt claim on its issuer, analysed differently. Check it
  • …you hold shares of the fund manager rather than units of one of its funds — an operating company is not a pooled vehicle; the domicile alone never decides it.
  • …a reviewer has verified the classification — a screen from the fund's identity becomes a determination only when a person checks the fund's own facts.

What a PFIC costs in a given year

  • …you sold the holding, in full or in part, during the year — a disposition is an excess distribution over the whole holding period, with interest, not a capital gain.
  • …the fund paid you a distribution that exceeds 125% of the prior three years' average — the excess is thrown back across the holding period and taxed at each year's top rate.
  • …a qualified electing fund or mark-to-market election was made in a prior year — an election changes the regime for every later year until revoked; the §1291 default no longer applies.
  • …the fund publishes a PFIC Annual Information Statement — a QEF election becomes available; without the statement it cannot be made or kept.
  • …the purchase date or the cost is not what the statement assumed — the holding period and the basis drive both the allocation and the interest; a reconstructed date moves both.
  • …the year-end value is not the one used — under mark-to-market the year's inclusion is the change in value; a different value is a different figure.

Each line names a fact that moves the result; what it moves to depends on the rest of your facts. Nothing here is a determination.

How Atamatax calculations are produced — the tests applied, statutory sources and review cadence — is documented in the methodology, and how the engine is validated in accuracy & review. Calculation fixes are recorded in the changelog.

Authorities cited

  • IRC §1297 — IRC §1297 — Definition of a passive foreign investment company
  • IRS Form 8621 — About Form 8621 — Information Return by a Shareholder of a PFIC or QEF
  • FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR) — Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR)
  • IRS Form 8938 — About Form 8938 — Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets
  • IRC §1411 — IRC §1411 — Net Investment Income Tax (3.8%)
  • IRS Form 1116 — About Form 1116 — Foreign Tax Credit (Individual, Estate, or Trust)
  • IRS Form 3520 — About Form 3520 — Annual Return To Report Transactions With Foreign Trusts

Primary sources (Cornell Legal Information Institute for the US Code and CFR; IRS.gov for forms, procedures, and treaty documents). This page is general information, not individualized tax or legal advice.

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