I would like to minimize all US-related reporting. This is not about reducing my tax burden. The main objective is to simplify life.
US & EU citizen
Resident in EU
Self-employed in EU
Investment accounts
Wouldn’t a European company where I own 9% and a non-US person holds 91%, where I do not have signatory power, and where I am an employee, mean that I only need to report my salary and any bank accounts over the FBAR reporting threshold?
Once you break the FBAR threshold in aggregate, you have to report all bank and depository accounts irrespective of the amounts in them.
Further, if you own any amount of a foreign corporation, you have to report that on 8938, it’s a foreign asset, doesn’t matter if it’s 9%. 9% just means you don’t have to file 5471. And you still have to report the economic activity related to your 9% of the business. I would try to avoid a GmbH structure, as that’s more of a pass-through vehicle I believe, which means it’d look more like a K-1 LLC with all the income/expense items flowing through in one form or another; a AG would be more straightforward since it’s down to net dividend/capgain. But that’s just my minimal understanding of GmbH. You’d need someone with more expertise on the EU side.
If I were purely looking to simplify I’d get rid of the corporation so it’s just you as an employee. That kind of thing is very straightforward and well-trod at least. Of course that is only looking at it from the one vector.
If you then move to a tax friendly country or become a true world nomad you don’t have any paperwork at all
I just can’t see the point in this massive amount of hassle becoming resident in another country only to double the amount of paperwork and not save money. It is sad that a site for nomads rarely discussed nomads