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[adamu]

You mention in the article that Americans shouldn't use ideco or nisa - are there any resources that confirm this? What happens if an American actually set up nisa/ideco?

There are a couple of potentially helpful links on https://retirewiki.jp/wiki/United_States.

[RetireJapan]

You mention in the article that Americans shouldn't use ideco or nisa - are there any resources that confirm this? What happens if an American actually set up nisa/ideco?

The problems are all on the US/IRS side. iDeCo/NISA providers will happily open accounts for US citizens, but the problems come later when you try to do your US tax return.

It all boils down to PFICs (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pfic.asp). All Japan listed mutual funds are PFICs, and iDeCo/tsumitate NISA only offers Japan listed mutual funds.

US citizens can use regular NISA to buy individual Japanese stocks, or iDeCo to save cash only (get the tax benefit, hope that inflation doesn't bite too much).

[adamu]

It appears this article from 2021 was republished dated 4 Dec 2024, with no changes to the content, which is quite dishonest, not helpful to the readers, and clearly an SEO move (I noticed because we started to get more traffic to retirewiki.jp via GaijinPot this month).

Here's the original

https://web.archive.org/web/20210406220 ... -strategy/

[Tkydon]

You mention in the article that Americans shouldn't use ideco or nisa - are there any resources that confirm this? What happens if an American actually set up nisa/ideco?

https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/US_tax_ ... ing_abroad

Currently PFIC

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/pfic.asp

https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8621

All Funds available in iDeCo and the Tsumitate Portion of NISA are ALL PFICs.

You may be able to find non-PFIC ETFs or plain Equities in the Growth Portion of NISA...

This may change with the switch from Citizen Taxation to Residence Based Taxation, or under Trump if he has a concept of a plan...

[captainspoke]

As a US person, I don't have iDeCo/Nisa, but I have read in various places that one or the other can be used if you buy individual stocks (or even derivatives).

This seems different than statements I also see saying you can only but mutual funds (=PFICs).

I'm beyond needing this, but can someone clarify for others?

[RetireJapan]

As a US person, I don't have iDeCo/Nisa, but I have read in various places that one or the other can be used if you buy individual stocks (or even derivatives).

This seems different than statements I also see saying you can only but mutual funds (=PFICs).

I'm beyond needing this, but can someone clarify for others?

Not one or the other.

NISA tsumitate portion = can only buy Japanese mutual funds
NISA growth portion = can buy mutual funds, ETFs, and shares but most brokers that offer NISA are not allowed to sell US listed investments to US citizens, so only Japanese individual stocks avoid PFIC reporting (and not all of them either as some may be deemed PFICs by the IRS)
iDeCo = can only buy Japanese mutual funds or a cash fund

Links to more info here: https://www.retirejapan.com/us-citizens ... d-holders/

[adamu]

It appears this article from 2021 was republished dated 4 Dec 2024 (edit: it was actually 2 Dec), with no changes to the content, which is quite dishonest, not helpful to the readers, and clearly an SEO move (I noticed because we started to get more traffic to retirewiki.jp via GaijinPot this month).

Here's the original

https://web.archive.org/web/20210406220 ... -strategy/

I made a similar comment on the republished article, but unsurprisingly it didn't pass moderation.

What they should have done if they wanted more clicks honestly:

1. Left the original article in place
2. Publish a new article linking back to the old one

Not taken down the original and re-publish it with a different URL and more recent date. This demonstrates that they are willing for compromise the accuracy of the information they publish to improve their revenue.