International plans

1. In Plan details, choose Tax country: United States or Other (custom rules). This is where you live at the plan’s start.
2. Review the confirmation. It lists the settings that stop applying, then choose Switch to the new country. You can also switch the currency in the same step.
3. Check Currency. Changing it only changes how amounts are shown.

When you leave the US, these settings stop applying in the years you live abroad: federal, state and local income tax; payroll tax and Social Security benefit taxation; Marketplace coverage, Medicare and IRMAA; US tax targets, Roth conversions and 72(t) payments; and US estate tax and estimated payments. They stay saved and apply again in any US year.

With Other (custom rules), Custom tax rules in Plan details defines the country’s tax:

• whether each person is taxed separately or the couple together
• a tax-free allowance and national income tax brackets, which grow with plan inflation unless you turn indexing off
• how capital gains are taxed: as income with a share included, at a flat rate, or not at all
• whether dividends and interest are ordinary income, taxed like gains (dividends only) or at a flat rate
• an optional yearly wealth tax on net worth, with or without property, per person or per household
• an optional transaction tax on purchases, sales or both in taxable accounts

Choose Save tax rules to save them. If the server rejects a rule, its message appears above the button and your entries stay in the form.

To model a move, add a row under Residency timeline in Plan details and choose its Country. A US row keeps its state and locality. Same as plan uses the plan’s own tax country. See Move between states or cities for how start and end milestones and years work.

Each year is assessed entirely under the rules of the country where you live for most of the year. When two countries have the same number of months, the later residence wins.

The plan’s currency sets the symbol and number format in charts, the ledger, reports and exports. It doesn’t change any calculation. Enter balances, income, expenses and tax amounts in that currency.

In a plan in any other currency than US dollars, the chart and report labels say Today’s money and Future (nominal) where a US-dollar plan says today’s and future dollars.

Plans abroad use checking, savings, taxable brokerage and other accounts. When no year of the plan is a US year, US retirement accounts, HSAs and 529 plans are hidden. An account already saved with one of those types keeps it.

These simplifications apply in every year taxed by another country:

• Shared investment income (interest, dividends, realized gains, rent and cancelled debt from household assets) is split between partners by their cash and taxable balances at the start of the year. Joint balances count half to each partner.
• US pre-tax payroll deductions don’t reduce income abroad.
• Year-to-date entries and US carryovers are ignored. Year-to-date income, withholding and opening US tax payments don’t apply. US capital loss carryforwards and passive-loss rules don’t apply, and a net capital loss isn’t carried to a later year.
• Wealth tax uses balances at the start of the year.
• No US health costs. Marketplace premiums, Medicare and IRMAA aren’t charged in a country year. Enter health costs abroad as expenses.
• Transfers are trades. A transfer rule counts as a sale from its source and a purchase in its destination. If your rules tax trades in taxable accounts, both sides are taxed.
• Market history is from the US. Historical stress tests and historical Monte Carlo methods use US returns and inflation in every plan.