Do you love giving your clients great news? I do. Especially when it is about a tax benefit they can receive as the result of the hard work that they have put in throughout the tax year. That is what the overtime deduction is for the taxpayer. A little bit of tax relief for their hard work. But before sharing the good news with them, we need to make sure that we understand that No tax on overtime is not a blanket statement that will apply to all overtime compensation and all taxpayers. It is our responsibility to do our due diligence to understand who it will impact and how.
When Your Client’s World Is Bigger Than the U.S.
Manasa Nadig, EA
A lot of client meetings still start with the same assumptions: W-2 in a U.S. state, mortgage nearby, a 401(k), maybe some RSUs, and a college-savings plan. Yet many of those “simple” clients now own an apartment in another country, freelance for a foreign company, or have parents wiring money from overseas. The tax code does not see those details as background color; it treats them as organizing facts. This is where citizenship, residency, and domicile quietly step onto center stage. For planners, the challenge is not memorizing every cross-border rule. It is knowing when a client is no longer “just domestic” and shifting your planning framework before you stumble into penalties, double taxation, or blown opportunities.
