A bill introduced in October may provide individuals who want to spend part of the year living in the United States with a special visa to do so.
The Visa Improvements to Stimulate International Tourism to the United States of America Act ("VISIT-USA Act") would provide a non-immigrant visa to an individual (and his or her spouse and children) who:
1. uses as least $500,000 in cash to purchase one or more residences;
2. maintains ownership of residential property in the United States worth at least $500,000 during the entire period the alien remains in the United States as a nonimmigrant; and
3. resides for more than 180 days per year in a residence in the United States that is worth at least $250,000.
Home buyers under this program, however, will be encouraged to pay a premium for their residence(es), as one of the proposed rules are that the residence must have sold for more than 100% of the "most recent appraised value of such residence, as determined by the property assessor in the city or county in which the residence is located".
If you are thinking that this proposal might assist you in an unofficially "permanent" relocation to the United States, it is important to note that for financial planning purposes, a visa-holder would not be able to receive government benefits such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. In addition, the visa would not authorize the holder to engage in employment in the United States, except for employment related to management of the property, and the program would not lead to citizenship.
There is the question of how the visa holder would be taxed. Since this is technically an immigration bill, the income and estate tax implications of this proposed bill are not addressed. For planning purposes, as it stands right now, one could argue that once the Substantial Presence Test is triggered, the non-immigrant visa holder would be considered resident for income tax purposes, unless they can claim the Closer Connection Exception. Of course, one would need to seek advice from a qualified professional.
Today, on CNBC, however, Senator Charles Schumer implied that taxes would be paid on US source income: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000060614
We will post updates to The Cross Border Living Blog as more information becomes available.
Comments