RetireJapan

Hi all,

I'm a U.S. citizen in desperate need of an accountant who specializes in both U.S. and Japan individual taxes. Been here 10 years and finally starting to think about investing, but I need help understanding the tax impacts investing will have in each country. In particular, I'm worried about retirement because, if I understand everything correctly, I can't contribute to my IRA (I take the foreign earned income exclusion and have no other income) and I apparently can't invest in iDeCo without incurring a significant headache from the IRS. I'm looking for someone who can walk me through various scenarios and help me minimize the tax burden in both countries while doing so.

I live in the Kanto region, but since this is the 21st century I'd be comfortable interacting with an accountant entirely online as well. If you know someone who might be helpful or who has helped you in the past, please send me their contact info.

Thanks for the help!

Have you tried googling a little?

I've got some ancient bookmarks from that for people I've never used, but those services are out there.

If anything, you might have to separate things, so that someone would deal with the US side, and someone else the J-side.

You might have come across Interactive Brokers, one of the only remaining outfits that let you open a US acct. My suggestion would be to use them, rather than trying to spin in circles trying to figure out how iDeCo can be merged with US requirements.

I'm US, too, but am not worried about the lack of an IRA (there might be some flavor of those--Roth--that you can still use).

IMO, the main goal is to save. Saving in the right way, or via the right acct is of course great, but the main thing is to save.

This guy has a background in both Japan and US. I know him from comments online, seems decent enough.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/frederickgundlach