Federal Benefits & Taxes
Important Notes for Taxpayers
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has instituted a new requirement for the reporting of specific types of foreign assets and accounts. It is important for taxpayers to determine whether they are subject to this new requirement because the law imposes significant penalties for failing to comply.
Specified foreign financial assets generally include the following assets:
-
Any financial account maintained by a foreign financial institution.
-
To the extent held for investment and not held in a financial account, any stock or securities issued by someone that is not a U.S. person, any interest in a foreign entity, and any financial instrument or contract with an issuer or counterparty that is not a U.S. person.
To learn more about this requirement, and to determine whether you fall under this requirement, please visit the IRS website for instructions.
In addition, for those seeking information on Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers, the IRS is implementing important changes to this application process.
For information on those changes, please click here for guidance on travel.state.gov, or here for the official announcement from the IRS. The IRS has also published a helpful set of FAQs on the new process, which is available here.
General Information on Federal Benefits
The Consular Section at U.S. Embassy - Kuwait provides assistance with Social Security, Civil Service, and Department of Veterans’ Affairs benefits, to include the following (NOTE: Embassy Kuwait is not a claims-taking post. The Consular Section can only provide assistance and forward applications and forms to the regional Federal Benefits Unit in Athens, Greece, or to the Social Security Administration headquarters in the US):
- Filing Social Security claims for retirement, survivors and disability benefits;
- Filing Department of Veterans’ Affairs claims for compensation, pension, education, survivor and burial benefits;
- Assist beneficiaries of pensions from the Office of Personnel Management, Washington, DC and the Railroad Retirement Board;
- Beneficiary status change transactions, i.e., notice of changes of address, non-receipt of payment, etc.;
- Medicare enrollments and cancellations;
- Earnings record inquiries;
- Assist in obtaining replacement Social Security Cards.
For more information about the range of benefits and services for U.S. citizens abroad, please visit the Department of State page.
For direct inquiries on Social Security, Veterans Affairs, and the Civil Service, please view the Social Security Administration Web page, the Veterans’ Affairs Web page, and the Civil Service Web page.
As with all services, assistance with federal benefits does require an Appointment, which can be made.