In shortUS-based accountant Madina Bakhretdinova explains why your first American tax return matters more to an immigrant than the balance in the bank: how a new US tax resident should report an apartment abroad, when an S-Corporation pays off, why a tax saving can cost you $20,000 in health insurance — and why you should never upload your bank statements to ChatGPT.
Everyone who has moved to America, or is about to, eventually asks the same question: how do I bring my money here legally? How do I declare the savings, the apartment and the accounts I left behind, avoid handing the IRS more than I owe, and then keep earning here — on a W-2, on a 1099, or through my own company? And what happens if I get it wrong?
Many people find out too late, when a letter from the IRS arrives. The apartment back home was sold, but it never appeared on a return. Nobody mentioned the foreign account. The income came in cash, and now the bank won't approve a mortgage. For an immigrant, the US tax return works like a financial passport: your green card, citizenship, health-insurance subsidies and the purchase of a home all depend on it.
So I invited tax expert Madina Bakhretdinova to BEZ GRANIC — Without Borders. She has run an accounting practice in the US for more than ten years, holds American licenses, and owns a tax firm with more than 20 employees. Madina has lived in the US since 2004: she finished high school and earned her bachelor's degree here, and started out working from the clubhouse of the apartment complex where she rented. Today she handles taxes for families and businesses. We went through the most common tax mistakes immigrants make, what to do with property and money back home, W-2 versus 1099, when an S-Corporation makes sense, Social Security credits, and the risks of doing your books with AI.
The episode is in Russian, with English subtitles on YouTube.
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ProStudio1US tax resident: how do you sell property back home without overpaying?
A US tax resident must report all income and assets worldwide to the IRS, and that obligation starts the moment you become one. If you still own apartments, business stakes, bank accounts or crypto in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Russia or anywhere else, they need to be documented right away. Madina calls her approach "the tax resident's first return."
The idea is to report your foreign property on your very first American return. The property gets an independent appraisal as of the date you became a resident, and that market value becomes the asset's basis. If you sell a year or two later, capital-gains tax is due not on the whole sale price but only on the difference between the sale price and the reported basis.
We record that amount as the basis of the apartment. Then, when you've moved the money here and sold the apartment, we file Form 8949: "The apartment sold for 120 thousand; its cost basis was 100 thousand." And you pay tax only on the 20 thousand.Watch this moment · 11:38
Renovation and improvement costs can also be added to the calculation to lower the taxable gain legally.
Do you have to declare money you transfer to the US?
Yes, if it comes from selling property back home. A transfer to the US from Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine or any other country is not taxed in itself, but the IRS treats the proceeds from selling that apartment as a capital gain. If the apartment was reported on your first resident return, you pay tax only on the difference between the sale price and the recorded value — not on the full amount you transferred.
Foreign accounts are reported separately. What is FBAR? It's an informational report on foreign accounts. If the combined balance of your foreign bank accounts exceeded $10,000 on any day of the year, the law requires you to file FBAR (FinCEN Form 114). The report itself carries no tax, but the penalty for not filing it is $10,000.
ProStudio1W‑2 or 1099: which pays off, and what is an S‑Corporation?
The right choice depends on your family situation, your field and your real business expenses. There's no universal answer, but there are clear financial benchmarks.
A single person with no children who works remotely — in IT, say — on company equipment is usually better off as a W-2 employee. The employer covers half of the payroll tax, and the employee has almost nothing to deduct anyway.
For people with families and for professionals with real operating costs, the picture changes, because business income is taxed differently from wages. On $100,000 in income, an employee pays about 25% — roughly what US payroll and income taxes come to in this example. Earn the same amount as an independent contractor on a 1099, through your own company, and the tax structure is different.
I've had this type of company myself for many, many years — it's very advantageous. You save 15.3% on the distribution amount.Watch this moment · 20:21
Moving employees from W-2 to 1099 against their will is strictly regulated by labor law. If someone works set hours, on company equipment and under direct supervision, they must be on a W-2. A 1099 contractor should have their own company (an LLC) and commercial insurance.
ProStudio1Your tax return and your mortgage: why saving on taxes can wreck a loan and your health insurance
Many immigrants deduct everything they can to show the smallest possible profit and pay less tax. That creates problems when it's time to apply for subsidies or buy a home.
Obamacare is government-subsidized health insurance whose price depends on your income. A family of four that declares $45,000 might pay just $150 a month for a policy, with the government covering the rest — up to $2,000 a month.
Then, the next year, the family decides to buy a house. The mortgage broker needs to see net income of, say, $200,000. The income is documented, the mortgage is approved — and then the health-insurance subsidy is recalculated. Because the real income exceeded 400% of the Federal Poverty Level, the IRS will require the family to repay all the subsidies it received. The bill can reach $20,000.
On top of paying taxes on 200 thousand to get the mortgage, you also pay about 20 thousand dollars… Because the government basically gave you an advance, and now they're taking it back.Watch this moment · 27:51
Tax planning can't be done in spring, once the year is already closed. The strategy has to be set in advance — between October 15 and December 31. That's the window in which an accountant can calculate the burden, adjust payments and prepare a profile that meets mortgage requirements.
ProStudio1What is your accountant responsible for — and what can send you, the client, to prison?
Taxes work differently in the US than in Russia, and so does responsibility. The taxpayer is legally responsible for every number on the return. By signing it, the client confirms under penalty of perjury that everything on it is correct.
The accountant is criminally liable for deliberate violations: routing clients' tax refunds into their own accounts, taking a percentage of the refund, or intentionally falsifying numbers for personal gain.
A basic $300 return never includes representation in a tax audit or a detailed review of bank statements. Audit defense with the IRS is a separate service and costs $5,000 to $10,000. A license also prohibits accountants from drafting contracts — that counts as the unauthorized practice of law.
Clients must personally check their information before filing: Social Security numbers, dates of birth and bank details. A mistake in a single digit of a routing number (especially mixing up wire and ACH) leads to blocked payments and delayed refunds.
The self-employed should remember: income received through Zelle or Venmo can't be hidden. According to Madina, every such payment has to be reported and taxed.
ProStudio1Can you do your tax return with ChatGPT?
In short: no. The popularity of public AI chatbots has created a serious financial-security problem. Many business owners upload bank statements and Form 1040 into ChatGPT to tally their expenses automatically.
That is something you should never do. Public language models don't meet the cybersecurity standards required for financial data. Uploading documents with names, addresses, account numbers and SSNs into a public interface exposes them to third parties and sharply raises the risk of identity theft. Professional firms use specialized, isolated software with closed security perimeters.
The second problem is AI's low accuracy on complex tax cases.
We recently tested AI on the accounting license exam. AI scored 56%. So the accuracy, unfortunately, is still nowhere near what we'd want to see.Watch this moment · 1:03:28
Algorithms can group basic expense categories, but they don't account for the rules on writing off commercial vehicles, the interplay of health-insurance program limits, mortgage underwriters' requirements, or long-term immigration goals.
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Kristina Samofal
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