Did this a long time ago, just jotted down a few things that I think are required for INternational transfer, based on my experience. I've heard it is quite useful for folks who are moving - here is the list.
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International
Relocation – some helpful checklist (engeetham@gmail.com)
1. Work
a. Check
lateral/upward/downward move with position
b. Pay consistency
c. Relo benefits
2. Be aware that this is a big change for
the family – so you may need to spend time here running around for the
first two months – set appropriate work expectations
i.
School,
school district – understanding them etc
ii.
House
hunting
iii.
Car-hunting;
furniture and house-hold shopping etc
iv.
Getting
local driver’s license, SS Card etc
3. Personal
a. Financial/Bank accounts in India, in
your name
b. Consolidate accounts where possible, so
that you have single point of contact; and reduce interfaces
i. Also consolidation will help in getting
premium/preferred status and hence better service
ii. Set expectations with the banks there,
that you need support from them twice a year (once for India tax year and the
other for US tax year)
iii. Switch to email communication (from
paper statements)
iv. Understand a bit on US taxation
1. FBAR filing (with US treasury – need
some additional info from Banks for this)
2. 8938 filing
3. You pay US taxes on world-wide income
(even MF dividends are taxable)
4. Get an accountant in India who would
file on your behalf post HP’s tax-assistance after year 1
v. NRE/NRO & Mutual fund investments
1. If you are pretty clear that you are
going to go for your Green Card, switch your accounts to NRE/NRO status of the
bank accounts – will help you in 15% taxation in India due to DTAA (see
2.a.iii.2 J); or else you end
up paying 33% in India
2.
(added v2) Also, if you don’t need money
in India, just keep some operating amount in NRO account, and get an auditor
(CA) to fill form 15A and 15B (iirc) and move most of your NRO (or RO) accounts
to NRE – this would mean local interested don’t get TDS’ed. Also, you can
repatriate the money, when you need them in the US
3. (added v2) Some MF/PMS’s are not
available for NRI – check and exit them, so that you don’t get into trouble
later
c. Brace yourself for “IT Audits” in India
– which means, bring all your past IT history, bank statements etc – a copy of
those – best is to scan and bring it as soft copy.
i. I learned it the hard way, since I’ve been
audited for three consecutive years L
ii. There are tons of documentation required
for these audits.
1. Which is why post-company tax assistance, you
want to get a good IT auditor/accountant back in India.
d. Bank
account in India in your wife’s name
i. Similar stuff as above
e. Your local insurance and premium
payments
i. ECS ? Checks ?
4.
(Added v2) PF and other retirement
annuity (like Super Annuation)
a.
Exit them within the India tax year –
the PF withdrawal is not taxable in India. In US, they are taxed on withdrawal
at the applicable rate at withdrawal (all retirals are)
b.
So work with your CA (preferably US
Based CPA), and get the right advice – I believe there is something like if you
transfer (say) Nov 4th – that is 183d in India and you get to file
(primary resident) taxes in India and only residual taxes (under DTAA) in the US from Nov 4th
to Dec 31st,
5. Personal Items
v. Residence,
Car, phone, gas connections (need to take care of all those)
vi. Even after 11 years, I’ve all of them
going J (House is locked, car is driven
once in a while, phone is in ECS etc etc)
i.
If
your house is locked, pay all the bills via ECS or pay some 10k, for example,
for electricity
vii. Your/Family
past medical records, if you have them
viii. Safe
keeping of valuables – either in local lockers or in someone else house
i.
If
in locker, rent paid in advance or managed
6. Family
a. Assuming you will all go for Green Card
i. Need all birth certificates (in absence
of BC, for you/wife/kids, need notarized affidavits from respective parents)
ii. Need all your, including spouses, college
certs (degree, marks etc)
iii. All your old/expired passports
iv. All your vaccination records
v. Your local (English) driving license
1. If your wife/family member, drives there, great – but
if not, it would be good to take classes there to get the sense of driving
before coming here
vi. Ensure passport has the right first name
and second names (key for applying for Social Security #s)
b. For kids:
i. You need the vaccination records for
school here
ii. Whatever books you could ship – the
books here aren’t the same as in India (for e.g., comics like Asterix are not
known here J)
c. Bringing your parents or in-laws later
on; if you plan to get them to travel here
i. Bring a copy of their passports etc;
particularly, if you feel they’d be clueless about some of these requirements
d. For house-hold, may want to specifically
ship:
i. Idli grinder (we are South Indians,
we have to do this J)
ii. Local blender (the blender here aren’t
so tough)
iii. Pressure cooker, gaskets, spares
iv. Silverware, if you are interested in
getting them here
v. Initial medicines for all
vi. If you have a computer there, just may
be bring the hard-disk with you !
vii. Some of kids favourite play stuff
(trampoline kinds J) – particularly if
you get shipping assistance
7.
(added v2) Trust creation
a.
Finally it is very common to have trust
created in the US. The reason being the lenders have lien over your assets if
something were to happen to you. They get the first dibs to it, before your
family gets it
i. You
cannot have a trust in the US that covers international assets – you need to
have one in the US covering US assets and one in India covering India assets
ii. So.
If you want to add your assets in India to a trust, think of one right now
