How does the US Estate Tax affect an Australian with investments domiciled in the US?
I don't think the location of the funds is any of your concern. You're buying a CDI, which is: Australian financial instruments The US has no jurisdiction over you, being you an Australian, so unless you own a US-based asset (i.e.: a real-estate in the US, or a US brokerage account), US tax laws shouldn't matter to you.
"Although there are occasional cases where simply moving money between countries results in a tax liability - for example a ""non-domiciled"" UK resident using the ""remittance basis"" - this is not the case in your situation. In general it would be extremely rare for non-residents of a country to be taxed on bringing money into that country, as it would be bad for tourism which most countries want to encourage. The requirement to declare large sums of money on entry is primarily so that the authorities can detect money laundering, rather than tax. Note that you will have to pay US tax on any interest you earn on that US bank account." "It depends on the rules in the specific places you stay.  Specific places being countries or states.   Some states may consider pension payments to be taxable income, others may not.  Some may consider presence for X days to constitute residency, X days may be 60 days in a calendar year whether or not those days are continuous.   It doesn't matter so much where your mailbox or mail handling service is located, it matters: You may owe taxes in more than one place.  Some states will allow you to offset other states' taxes against theirs.  Some states in the US are really harsh on income taxes.  It's my understanding that if you own real estate in New York, all of your income, no matter the source, is taxable income in New York whether or not you were ever in the state that year. Ultimately, you can't just put up your hand and say, ""that's my tax domicile so I'm exempt from all your taxes.""  There is no umbrella US regulation on this topic, the states determine who they consider to be residents and how those residents are to be taxed. While it's possible you may be considered a resident of multiple states and owe income taxes in multiple states, it's equally possible that you won't meet the residency criteria for any state regardless of whether or not that state has an income tax.  The issue you face, as addressed in @Jay's answer, Oklahoma will consider you a resident of OK until you have established residency somewhere else." "It's an interesting opinion piece. There seems to be little evidence that he provides to justify his claim.  His key points were:  ""While the president promised Guam's governor that tourism would go up ""tenfold"" because of media attention from his Twitter tirades about North Korea, the numbers tell a different tale. The war of words cost Guam's tourism industry $9.5 million last month. It appears vacationers would prefer to avoid possibly atomic attractions.""  He has a point, but  a lot of North Korea's rhetoric and launching of missiles have little to do with Trump. North Korea tested missiles before and that usually has an affect on neighboring areas a little. That situation, and indeed the entire North Korean can affect the US, and the world economy. That is a wait and see.    This is his second point:  ""This uncertainty creates costs. Consider the costs generated by demonizing the Muslim community alone. Muslim individuals, institutions, and governments control approximately $11.5 trillion in wealth. They continually consider whether to buy or sell American assets. To put it in terms that this administration might understand – these investors may now balk at buying luxury real estate that they might not be able to visit.""  This is all conjecture and I am sure some tourism is down because of what Trump has said. There might be some Muslim's who wont invest in this. So far there seems to have been little actual affect other than change of plans from Tourists. I don't see any long lasting affects though. Remember North Korea is negatively affecting all of Asia at this point. Furthermore Europe's growing anti Muslim sentiment and increasing number of terrorist attacks is going to dissuade some Muslim investors there as well. They  might have little option other than the US.  Economists have projected decent economic growth. While Trump's rhetoric is not helping, and honestly wish he would stop, I don't believe him talking on twitter is enough for the US to enter a recession.  It would take ending NAFTA or some other major economic disaster. The natural disasters will probably have more of a negative affect than Trump.  There are many factors that play in the US economy in general. The president can play a big part, but it would take a lot for his actions to enter a recession." Straight line in this example should be just the $2MM per year.  I don't think the author of the problem intended you to use anything in the actual tax code like MACRS.  I think the goal of the problem is to get you to identify the value of the depreciation tax shield and how the depreciation does affect your cash flow by reducing your taxes, even though depreciation itself is not a cash event. "Most (if not all states) in the US are only interested in source income. If you worked in that state they want to tax it. Many states have reciprocity agreements with neighboring states to exempt income earned when a person works in lets say Virginia, but lives in a state that touches Virginia.  Most states don't consider interest and dividends for individuals as source income. They don't care where the bank or mutual fund branch is located, or headquartered.If it is interest from a business they will allocate it to the state where the business is located.  If you may ask you to allocate the funds between two states if you move during the year, but most people will just divide the interest and dividends based on the number of days in each state unless there is a way to directly allocate the funds to a particular state.  Consider this: Where is the money when it is in a bank with multiple branches? The money is only electronic, and your actual ""$'s"" may be in a federal reserve branch. Pension funds are invested in projects all over the US." I can't give you a specific answer because I'm not a tax accountant, so you should seek advice from a tax professional with experience relevant to your situation. This could be a complicated situation. That being said, one place you could start is the Canada Revenue Agency's statement on investment income, which contains this paragraph: Interest, foreign interest and dividend income, foreign income,   foreign non-business income, and certain other income are all amounts   you report on your return. They are usually shown on the following   slips: T5, T3, T5013, T5013A To avoid double taxation, Canada and the US almost certainly have a foreign tax treaty that ensures you are only taxed in your country of residence. I'm assuming you're a resident of Canada. Also, this page states that: If you received foreign interest or dividend income, you have to   report it in Canadian dollars. Use the Bank of Canada exchange rate   that was in effect on the day you received the income. If you received   the income at different times during the year, use the average annual   exchange rate. You should consult a tax professional. I'm not a tax professional, let alone one who specializes in the Canadian tax system. A professional is the only one you should trust to answer your question with 100% accuracy. except that most companies are small companies and most business owners end up as families at some point.  I'm starting a business abroad and will be taxed at 35% in the USA even if I don't live there.   There's ways to get around it, but I'm not sure exactly how to do it yet nor am I making enough money yet to justify the up front expense of doing this You can call what you're asking about a 'wealth tax', or 'capital tax'.  These are taxes not based on income you earned in a year, but some measure of how much you own. Some countries (Italy I believe is a prime example) tax ownership of foreign land. Some countries tax amounts owned by corporations [Canada did this until ~5-10 years ago depending on province]. Some countries strictly tax your wealth above a certain level (Switzerland, as has been mentioned, does this).  One form of what you are referring to that does exist in the US is the 'Estate Tax'. This is a tax on the amount of wealth that a person owns, at the time they die. The threshold for when this tax applies has been very volatile over the last 20 years, but it is generally in the multi-millions, and I believe sits somewhere around $5M. If these taxes start to crop up more and more (and I believe they will), don't be shocked at the initial 'sticker price'. Theoretically a wealth tax could replace some of the current income tax regime in many countries without creating a strict increased tax burden on their people. ie: if you owe $10k in income tax this year, but a $2k capital tax is instituted next year, then you are still in the same position as long as your income tax is reduced to $8k.  Whether these taxes are effective/preferable or not is really a question of economics, not personal finance, so I will not belabour that point. Note: if the money you have saved earns money (interest, or dividends, or maybe rent from a condo you own), then those earnings are typically taxed alongside your wage income. Any 'wealth/capital tax' as I've described it above would be in addition to income tax on investment earnings.