Hi everyone,
I am posting this to the US investors forum instead of the non-US investors one in the hope of reaching a wider audience. I apologise in advance if this is too long and rambling but I just want to make sure I put all the facts out there :
I am a Non Resident Alien with several years to go before I can avoid the early withdrawal penalty and did a Traditional to Roth IRA conversion with Vanguard for the first time in 2024. Unlike for residents, the process was extremely convoluted as Vanguard does not allow a plan to plan conversion for NRAs. In fact, they don't even allow a distribution from an IRA to any place other than a regular Vanguard account. So, I first had to take a distribution out of the traditional IRA ( up to the 12% tax slab limit) into my taxable Vanguard account, then transfer that money into my bank account, and finally do a rollover conversion from the bank account into a Roth IRA. I had 30% tax withheld on taking the distribution and topped it up when doing the rollover conversion so that the amount rolled over was exactly equal to the distribution taken. All this was done well within the 60 day window. If all goes well, I plan to repeat this process over the next few years and convert most of my traditional IRA to Roth.
I am now owed a substantial chunk of the withheld taxes as a refund. After receiving the 1042-S ( in lieu of the 1099-R), I am about to file my federal taxes using OLT. I noticed they allow an option to attach free-form pdf files in additional to the standard Form 1040-NR, relevant schedules and Form 8606.
Given that the Vanguard workflow required me to carry out a convoluted series of transactions for what should have been a simple plan to plan conversion and also because this is my first time doing this, I am concerned that the IRS might have questions for me and try to contact me for more information. The problem is that I live in a country where the government postal service is notorious for misplacing mails. If I need to receive important physical deliveries from the US, I ask the sender to Fedex them at my expense. I am worried that if the IRS tries to contact me through USPS at my foreign address, I will never receive the mail. So, I am wondering if I should preemptively attach explanatory documents and statements to my tax return ( which OLT seems to allow). Will they be read by anyone at IRS or just go into the trash can, or worse, cause problems with the processing of my tax return ? Would Form 8275 be relevant in my case ? Is there any way to know the IRS is trying to contact me if their mail gets lost in transit ? I have registered at the IRS website through ID.me . Will the IRS send a notification there if they send me a physical mail ? I use a US mobile number on my tax return. Will they try to contact me there ?
Would appreciate any advice of insights you may have,
Thanks in advance
I am posting this to the US investors forum instead of the non-US investors one in the hope of reaching a wider audience. I apologise in advance if this is too long and rambling but I just want to make sure I put all the facts out there :
I am a Non Resident Alien with several years to go before I can avoid the early withdrawal penalty and did a Traditional to Roth IRA conversion with Vanguard for the first time in 2024. Unlike for residents, the process was extremely convoluted as Vanguard does not allow a plan to plan conversion for NRAs. In fact, they don't even allow a distribution from an IRA to any place other than a regular Vanguard account. So, I first had to take a distribution out of the traditional IRA ( up to the 12% tax slab limit) into my taxable Vanguard account, then transfer that money into my bank account, and finally do a rollover conversion from the bank account into a Roth IRA. I had 30% tax withheld on taking the distribution and topped it up when doing the rollover conversion so that the amount rolled over was exactly equal to the distribution taken. All this was done well within the 60 day window. If all goes well, I plan to repeat this process over the next few years and convert most of my traditional IRA to Roth.
I am now owed a substantial chunk of the withheld taxes as a refund. After receiving the 1042-S ( in lieu of the 1099-R), I am about to file my federal taxes using OLT. I noticed they allow an option to attach free-form pdf files in additional to the standard Form 1040-NR, relevant schedules and Form 8606.
Given that the Vanguard workflow required me to carry out a convoluted series of transactions for what should have been a simple plan to plan conversion and also because this is my first time doing this, I am concerned that the IRS might have questions for me and try to contact me for more information. The problem is that I live in a country where the government postal service is notorious for misplacing mails. If I need to receive important physical deliveries from the US, I ask the sender to Fedex them at my expense. I am worried that if the IRS tries to contact me through USPS at my foreign address, I will never receive the mail. So, I am wondering if I should preemptively attach explanatory documents and statements to my tax return ( which OLT seems to allow). Will they be read by anyone at IRS or just go into the trash can, or worse, cause problems with the processing of my tax return ? Would Form 8275 be relevant in my case ? Is there any way to know the IRS is trying to contact me if their mail gets lost in transit ? I have registered at the IRS website through ID.me . Will the IRS send a notification there if they send me a physical mail ? I use a US mobile number on my tax return. Will they try to contact me there ?
Would appreciate any advice of insights you may have,
Thanks in advance
Statistics: Posted by majormajor — Fri Mar 14, 2025 5:49 am — Replies 0 — Views 33
