The International Schools Review Forum

Can anyone who REALLY KNOWS tell me how they reported their Malaysian EPF funds on their U.S. taxes?

Even though the money never pushes the salary above the $80,000 U.S. salary exemption, does it need to be reported?

Is it taxed?

Any advice would be great.

Short answer yes it needs to be reported, since its considered an investment account and its greater than $10K. If its under the tax credit limit than no its not taxed.

Do you ever have the option to have the Malaysian EPF in another currency besides rinngett?

Also, when you leave Malaysia, can that money that was in the EPF be rolled over into another retirement account?

When you leave Malaysia, your EPF will be issued to you in ringett. This is standard issue from the government, they do not issue in other currencies. You will however have no problem converting your ringett into any other major currency. When we left, we were not able to transfer it directly into our own pension savings or RRSP (Canadian), but invested the cash accordingly ourselves back home.

@twoteachers

They only issue your disbursement in ringett, its not difficult to convert it into any other currency, though you will lose some value in the conversion. No you can not "roll it over" into another type of retirement account, the only option is a cash disbursement, and unless your retirement account allows for cash deposits, you would have to invest it separately in another type of instrument.

Luckily, one of my accounts does accept cash. Looks like a large deposit will be the way to go.