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The general rule is that US inheritance tax is definitely due for any deceased natural person globally who owned US assets at the time of death.
...
However, perhaps more to the point, almost nobody outside the US actually pays the US estate tax even when it is due.
Look up how much is collected each year under this tax...the total is about the size of one really rich person's portfolio.
In essence, the US does not know when a non-US person dies. Therefore the US doesn't ask for the tax, and the individual doesn't take the initiative to offer it.
A typical situation: a married non-US couple has a joint brokerage account. One dies. The other simply withdraws the money without telling the broker that one holder died. Done.
Many non-US brokers don't care even if they did know.
This approach does not meet US law, but it's what people do.
Wow, that's amazing. Just. Amazing. (And the conclusion is reassuringly practical, although I do know people who like to stick to "the letter of the law", even when it's not in their interests).
Thanks again, for all you do here. Sometimes they're real gems that I would never have imagined myself, and your explanation is so clear and "to the point". It has always amazed me that the US claims the right to tax peoples' incomes even when they've been away from the US for years, but now I know that they also claim to tax me / my heirs just because I was kind enough to invest in their country. Wow.
SA
