I'm on H1b and planning to go back to India to support parents. I'm a single earner, married with small kids. Most of my savings would go for paying medical bills. Please help with below answers and share if you have gone thru this process and experience. Appreciate any help!! TIA. #1 - My I40 is done, so would it get cancelled? Considering both cases whether I stay with my current employer or take a break to support family. #2- what happens to all bank accounts, do I need to close them or can keep it. I'd need it for some time to pay bills here that are pending. #3- 401k, do I need to close it or can leave as is? #4- stock account thru employer? #5- personal stock account like Robinhood? #6- HSA? #7- how to transfer lump sum money from here to Indian bank account, don't have one yet. #8- what happens to taxable investment accounts? Do I need to file taxes every year? I'm not sure if I should let above accounts active here or close them, penalty on 401k and HSA. Kindly add if I'm missed some other things that I should also consider. Thanks a ton!!
Get a CPA to answer your finance questions. They'll take less than $100 for this. For visa questions, ask your company legal if you've taken that option. If not. Immigration team should help answer that. Have you considered working for the same company from India?
Thank you for the suggestions! Yes, I've considered and have been talking to my current manager. It's not clear yet how would this work though. I don't have a team in India and location is different as well. Currently, I'm more inclined to take a break for family reasons.
#1. Depends on how long ago it was filed. If more than 6 months ago then you are fine. As long as you don't change firms the GC status will remain in queue. In the offchance that your priority date becomes current, you are eligible for your GC too. If you leave Intel then the next employer will have to do labour etc, and then can use the same priority date. But since you are in India, it is unlikely that they will. #2. Depends on the terms of the account. You are free to keep them open. However, most checking accounts have a clause that they need salary credited to them.once that stops you will be charged fees to hold them. #3 you can close and take the tax hit. It is clean. But many just keep it, and will claim it when they retire, given that your income then would be lower than your current, and more so because you will be earning in rupees, it is an option to consider. #4 you can keep it. You might have to fill in separate forms if you want to not pay taxes here. Same as Intel India employees, they get the RSU listed in us stock exchange but pay taxes there. #5 keep it. The more I and the questions the more I see that you will have to pay taxes in usa anyways. In which case, you can keep them. #6 you can't use that money for anything but meds, not sure what happens to it. I think it just sits here. #7 there are many ways. You can transfer to your parents or relatives, or siblings. If that is messy, then sitting in usa you can open an nri account with sbi or ICICI, a few phone calls and you are done. Then once you have those accounts, just wire the money there. India won't charge any taxes for money coming in nri accounts as there is a tax treaty. The money however converts to INR the moment it hits the NRI account. Then there is the third way, there are two banks which are international and operate both in USA and India. Hsbc and citibank.open an account(us account) in and. Park your money there. Go to India, and open an account with them again(indian). They will link the two accounts to the same customer Id. And then you can transfer from one account to another inside the same bank. I think with assets in usa it is better to keep paying taxes here. These days both India govt and us govt ask abt assets in usa and India respectively. Trying to hide stuff probably isn't a good idea. If you show that you have paid your taxes for your assets in usa then those become tax exempt in india(joint tax treaty). Please talk to a tax consultant, after all I am an engineer, and not a tax man.
Isn’t it hard to keep brokerage account open in the US if you don’t live here?
I am no tax man, so please ask a tax Conn, but staying outside one can own property here, and buy property too. Same with investment. As long as you pay taxes it should be okay. I think the main issues comes with ssn. But one can get a tax ID.
Another question i'd like to add is - what happens to taxable investment accounts? Do you need to file taxes every year?
Thank you, will add it!!