Assets: where your holdings sit and which countries ask about them

What this flag means

The assets flag is about where your holdings are located and how they are held: bank and brokerage accounts, investment funds, pensions, real estate and other property. In flag theory it is treated as its own decision, separate from where you live or are taxed. In practice it is tied to every other flag, because reporting duties, tax and succession rules can follow the asset's location, the owner's residence, the owner's domicile or the owner's citizenship.

Separate where an asset sits from where you live

Start with two lists. The first list is where each asset is located: the country of the bank, the broker, the fund manager, the pension scheme or the land. The second list is where you are, or may be, tax resident, domiciled or a citizen. Rules can attach to either list.

A country where you live may tax your worldwide income and ask you to report what you hold abroad. A country where an asset sits may tax income or gains from it, or the asset itself on death. The United States also reaches its citizens wherever they live. Moving one item on one list does not clear the other list.

The exposure check helps you write both lists down so you can take them to a professional.

Keep records that show who owns what, and how

Many cross-border questions turn on how an asset is held, not just where. Individual, joint, through a company, through a trust, or as a beneficiary of a pension or insurance contract can each lead to different reporting and tax questions.

Spain's foreign asset rule, for example, covers people who are holders, beneficiaries, authorized persons or who otherwise have power to dispose of an account, and extends to beneficial owners, according to the amended Additional Provision 18 of the General Tax Law. US FBAR rules cover a financial interest in, or signature or other authority over, a foreign account. Signature authority alone can raise a reporting question.

• Account statements showing the balance at year end and the highest balance during the year
• Purchase deeds, land registry extracts and acquisition values for property
• Fund documents showing the fund's legal form and country
• Pension scheme statements and the scheme's country and type
• Company and trust documents that show who owns or controls what
• A dated list of every person who can sign on each account

Check whether your residence country asks for reports on assets abroad

Some countries require residents, and in the US also citizens, to file information reports on assets held abroad. An information report is not the same as a tax bill. It tells the authority what exists. Penalties for missing reports can be separate from any tax.

The examples below are drawn from official pages opened on 8 November 2026. They are not a full list, and each has conditions and exceptions not shown here.

Spain's Modelo 720 is still in place. On 27 January 2022 the Court of Justice of the EU ruled in case C-788/19 that parts of the penalty and consequence regime attached to it breached EU free movement of capital. Spain's Law 5/2022 then amended the underlying rule. The amended text keeps the duty to report accounts, securities and insurance, real estate, and virtual currencies held with custodians abroad. The Agencia Tributaria notes that virtual currencies are reported on a separate form, Modelo 721, not on Modelo 720.

Ask how each pension is treated by each country involved

Pensions raise three separate questions: who pays the benefit, which country taxes it, and whether a foreign scheme must be reported. The answers can differ for state pensions, workplace pensions and private plans.

Inside the EU, the European Commission's Your Europe guidance explains that each country where you were insured pays its own part of a state pension. Periods worked in other EU countries are added together to check minimum periods, and each country calculates a pro-rata share. Each part is paid from that country's own pension age.

The same guidance says tax on state pensions varies by country, and that a residence country may tax foreign pensions while giving credit for tax paid abroad. Tax treaties can change which country taxes a pension. Read the treaty between the countries involved with a professional rather than assuming one rule fits every pension.

A pension plan held in one country can also look like a foreign account, trust or fund under another country's rules. That is a classification question for a qualified adviser.

Understand why funds held across borders raise extra questions

A fund's legal form and country can matter as much as what it invests in. A fund that is ordinary for a resident of one country can have a different tax treatment for a resident or citizen of another.

The US example is the passive foreign investment company, or PFIC. The IRS instructions for Form 8621 say a foreign corporation is a PFIC if 75% or more of its gross income for the tax year is passive income, or if at least 50% of the average percentage of its assets produce passive income or are held to produce it. A US person who is a direct or indirect shareholder of a PFIC generally files Form 8621 in listed circumstances, such as receiving certain distributions, selling shares or making certain elections.

Whether any particular fund is a PFIC, and which election or method applies, is a classification question for a qualified US tax professional. FlagSage does not classify funds, compare them or suggest what to hold.

Treat real estate and other located assets as tied to their country

Situs means the place where an asset is treated as located for a given rule. Land and buildings are the clearest case: they sit where they are, whoever owns them and wherever that owner lives.

The IRS explains that for people who were neither US citizens nor domiciled in the US at death, US estate tax reaches only US-situated assets. Its examples include real estate in the US, tangible personal property located in the US, and certain intangibles such as securities of US companies. Above a filing threshold, the executor files Form 706-NA.

Other countries use their own situs rules, and a tax treaty may change the result. A property abroad can also bring local registration, local tax on rental income and local rules on how it passes on death.

Separate succession law from inheritance and estate tax

Two different questions arise on death. Succession law decides who inherits and under which country's law. Inheritance or estate tax decides who pays tax on the transfer. The answers can come from different countries.

In the EU, Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 sets the law that governs a succession as a whole. Under Article 21, the default is the law of the state where the person had their habitual residence at death. Under Article 22, a person may choose the law of a state whose nationality they hold. The Regulation applies to people who die on or after 17 August 2015. Article 1(1) says it does not apply to revenue, customs or administrative matters, so it does not decide tax. Denmark and Ireland are not bound by it.

Tax can follow different links. In the United Kingdom, HMRC guidance says that from 6 April 2025 the domicile rules for inheritance tax on overseas assets were replaced by long-term UK residence rules, based on UK tax residence for 10 consecutive years or a total of 10 years within the previous 20. In the US, citizenship and domicile matter for estate tax. Article 30 of the EU Regulation also keeps special rules a country applies to certain property located there.

Fictional example: one owner, three asset locations

Fictional example, written on 8 November 2026. Maya is a US citizen who moved to Spain in 2025. She has a savings account in Portugal, a fund bought through a broker in Germany, a workplace pension from a past job in the US, and an apartment in the US that she rents out.

This hub does not say what Maya must file or pay. It shows the questions her situation raises, which she would take to a qualified adviser in each country.

• Does Spain treat Maya as tax resident for 2025 and 2026, and from which date?
• As a US citizen, which US reports apply to the Portuguese account and the German broker account?
• Do the Spanish foreign asset reporting rules apply to her accounts, the fund or the US apartment?
• Is the fund a PFIC for US purposes, and what does Spain think the fund is?
• How does the US-Spain tax treaty treat the US pension and the rental income?
• Which law would govern her succession, and could she choose US state law or another nationality's law?

Common misconceptions

Questions to take to a professional

1. Which countries could treat me as tax resident, domiciled or taxable by citizenship this year, and which foreign asset reports follow from each?
2. For each account where I am a holder, beneficiary or signatory, which reports apply, and what values and dates do they use?
3. How are my pensions taxed by each country involved, and does a tax treaty change that?
4. Could any fund or pension I hold be classified differently in another country I am connected to, such as a PFIC for US purposes?
5. Which country's situs rules apply to my property and securities, and does a treaty change the estate or inheritance tax result?
6. Which law would govern my succession, and should my will include a choice of law?
7. If I missed a foreign asset report in an earlier year, what official correction procedures exist?
8. What records should I keep, and for how long, for each country involved?

Questions people ask

Where this guide stops

Sources

• Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR)Official guidance
• Comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR requirementsOfficial guidance
• Instructions for Form 8621 (12/2025)Official guidance
• Frequently asked questions on estate taxes for nonresidents not citizens of the United StatesOfficial guidance
• About Form 706-NA, United States Estate (and Generation-Skipping Transfer) Tax ReturnOfficial guidance
• Modelo 720. Declaración Informativa. Declaración sobre bienes y derechos situados en el extranjeroOfficial guidance
• Preguntas frecuentes - Forma de calcular el límite que obliga a declarar (Modelo 720)Official guidance
• Orden HAP/72/2013, de 30 de enero, por la que se aprueba el modelo 720Primary law
• Ley 5/2022, de 9 de marzo (amends Additional Provision 18 of Ley 58/2003, General Tributaria)Primary law
• Judgment of the Court of 27 January 2022, European Commission v Kingdom of Spain, Case C-788/19Primary law
• Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of decisions in matters of successionPrimary law
• Inheritance Tax if you're a long-term UK residentOfficial guidance
• Your Europe: State pensions abroadOfficial guidance
• Determining residency (Estonian Tax and Customs Board)Official guidance