I know that this isn't necessarily associated with tax exempt entities, but I couldn't help myself. One of the recent tax related stories has been that the Federal Tax Exemption for americans living and working abroad does not apply to thoe persons living in Antarctica. Bloomberg has a great article on it. In summary, here is what's at stake.
The U.S. Tax Court ruled that the approximately 1,100 workers at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, McMurdo Station or other areas on the southern continent don't qualify for a longstanding exemption for Americans living abroad. At issue in the tax cases is whether Antarctica qualifies as a foreign country for purposes of a 50-year-old law that allows Americans living abroad to exclude part of their income from U.S. tax. Most of the cases date to 2001 and 2002, when the exclusion amount was capped at $80,000; the amount is now indexed for inflation and was $82,400 in 2006.
"As Antarctica is not a foreign country for purposes of the code, we conclude that petitioner is not entitled to exclude the wage income he earned in Antarctica,"' Judge Juan F. Vasquez wrote in one of 15 cases with identical rulings relating to the issue of tax collection for Antarctic residents.
The U.S. generally taxes citizens on their worldwide income. To qualify for what is known as a Section 911 exemption, U.S. citizens must live outside the country for an entire tax year, or 330 days in any 12-month period. U.S. citizens are required to pay taxes in the country where they are living. However, as we learned, even living in Antarctica for at least 330 days in a 12 month period is not going to be enough to prevent the payment of income taxes to the ever vigilant tax collector in the U.S.
