Under Revenue Procedure 2020-17, a foreign trust is a “tax-favored foreign retirement trust” exempt from reporting if it meets certain conditions. One of the conditions is that a trust may only permit contributions with respect to income earned from the performance of personal services. This condition has the result that a trust that allowed unemployed individuals to contribute (a common feature) would not qualify for this exception.
The proposed regulations modify this condition to allow for limited contributions made by unemployed individuals.
Revenue Procedure 2020-17 also imposes a contribution limit whereby contributions to the trust must either be limited by a percentage of earned income, an annual limit of US$50,000, or a lifetime limit of US$1 million. This limit is not indexed for inflation.
The proposed regulations modify this requirement by requiring that a trust meet either a new value threshold (aggregate value of the trust is limited to no more than US$600,000 during the taxable year, as adjusted for inflation) or a contribution limit (contributions to the trust must either be limited by a percentage of earned income, an annual limit of US$75,000, or a lifetime limit of US$1 million, as adjusted for inflation).