Do I have to file at home while living in Lebanon?
For most people the answer turns on whether the ties that made them resident have actually ended. For a US citizen or green-card holder it does not: the return is due in Lebanon exactly as it would be at home. Everything else on the file follows from which of those you are.
Is there a treaty between my country and Lebanon?
Possibly, and the version in force for your year is the one that matters — protocols and multilateral-instrument positions change what a treaty does without changing its name. We check it against the authority rather than a summary. Where no treaty applies, domestic relief takes over.
I own property in Lebanon. Where is the rent taxed?
Rent from immovable property is almost always taxable where the property is situated, frequently by withholding on the gross amount, with your home country taxing the same income and giving credit. A net-basis election, where one exists, is usually the difference between tax on profit and tax on turnover.
Do I report a Lebanese bank account I cannot withdraw from?
Reporting turns on ownership, not on access. A deposit you hold but cannot move is still a foreign holding, and the fact that the bank will not release it does not remove it from the report. This catches people out because the two things feel connected: if the money is unreachable, surely it does not count. It does. What the restriction changes is the evidence, not the obligation. Keep whatever the bank has issued, note the dates you asked for more, and file on the record you do hold rather than leaving the holding out entirely.
How do I value inherited property in Lebanon for my Canadian return?
Canadian foreign property reporting is built on cost rather than on what the asset would fetch today, and for inherited property the cost is fixed when you acquired it, not when the person who left it to you bought it. So the document that matters is the one evidencing the transfer to you and the value attributed at that point, usually from the succession papers. Where those are incomplete, we reconstruct from what exists: the notarial record, the municipal register, a dated valuation. Working in the wrong currency is the other common error, because the conversion is done at the date the cost is established.
My Lebanese bank will not issue statements, what do I file?
You file on secondary evidence and you record how you built it. In practice that means older statements you already hold, transfer advices, cheque images, correspondence with the branch, and a written note of each request the bank declined. A file assembled that way and explained in the return is a defensible position. An omission is not. The distinction matters if the holding is later queried, because the question then is whether you made a reasonable attempt to establish the figure, and a contemporaneous record of your attempts answers it directly.
Is rent from a flat in Beirut taxable in Canada?
If you are resident in Canada, your income is taxable there wherever it arises, so Lebanese rent belongs on the Canadian return whether or not it ever leaves Lebanon. Money sitting in a local account because it cannot be remitted is still income you have received. Relief for tax paid in Lebanon on the same rent runs through the foreign tax credit, which requires evidence that the foreign tax was actually imposed and paid. The deductible expenses are then determined under Canadian rules, which will not always match what a local accountant has treated as allowable.
Do Lebanese-Americans have to report accounts inherited from parents?
United States filing follows citizenship rather than residence, so an American who has never lived in the country still reports worldwide income and still reports foreign accounts. An account inherited from a parent becomes reportable from the point you acquire an interest in it, including a signature authority you have never used. Dormancy makes no difference. Nor does the account being held jointly with a sibling who is not American. The usual problem is not the current year but the years since the inheritance, which is a separate question about how to come forward.
Should I convert Lebanese deposits at the official or market rate?
The conversion is part of the figure you are reporting, so it has to be stated and it has to be consistent. Where more than one rate exists in a corridor, the answer is not to pick the one that produces the smaller number but to choose a published source, apply it to every holding in the same way across the year, and say in the file which source you used and why. Changing source between years, or between two accounts in the same year, is what turns a defensible conversion into an argument. Keep the published series you relied on with the working papers.
How do I file US taxes from abroad?
The same forms as anyone else, electronically where your circumstances allow it and on paper where a form or an election requires ink. Three differences matter. An automatic extension applies where your main home is outside the United States. The account report goes to FinCEN separately from the return, on its own schedule. And interest on any balance runs from the ordinary due date regardless of extensions, so an extension buys filing time, not payment time. See a US return from abroad.
How do I report a foreign pension on a US return?
As pension income, gross, with foreign tax available as a credit. Two extra layers catch people out. A treaty position on the pension may need to be taken and disclosed in its own right. And the plan itself can be a reportable foreign financial asset, sometimes with a further reporting regime if it is treated as a foreign trust — obligations keyed to holding the plan, not to drawing from it. Which layers apply depends on the country and the plan type. See the pensions and annuities article.
