When working with clients who are US citizens living abroad, it’s important to ensure their tax situation is modeled accurately. Voyant allows you to adjust for these unique cases by creating a custom or “effective” tax system that reflects offshore residency or other non-standard tax circumstances.
In this guide, we’ll walk through how to model a bespoke tax setup in the US version of Voyant.
Step 1: Enable Effective Tax Brackets
Start by navigating to Plan Settings > Federal Tax Brackets.
Tip: You could do this in a What If plan if you do not want it to effect your overall plan.
Turning on Effective Tax Brackets allows you to override Voyant’s standard US tax calculations, including both federal and state taxes. This ensures the plan reflects your client’s unique tax circumstances rather than defaulting to the combined US system.
Step 2: Create a Custom Tax System
To build a bespoke tax system, change Use Default Federal Tax Brackets from YES to NO.
Tip: Keep currency conversion in mind. All incomes and asset values should be entered in US dollars to ensure accuracy in your plan.
Scroll down to define how this tax jurisdiction handles Capital Gains, Dividends, and Escalation Rates.
Once you’ve entered all the necessary information, click “Done” to save.
Step 3: Review the Tax Calculation in Year View
Next, navigate to Year View > Taxes to confirm how your custom tax rates are being applied.
Scroll down to the Effective Tax Summary to view the effective rate applied to the plan, along with that year’s estimated tax liability.
You can also see the client’s estimated tax expense under Year View > Expenses, listed automatically as a line item.
Additional Modeling Tips
Tip 1: State Taxes
To avoid state taxes being applied, select a state with no income tax (e.g., Florida, Texas, or Washington) when entering your client’s residency at plan setup.
Tip 2: Offshore Accounts
To model offshore assets that fall outside traditional US tax rules, go to (+) → Savings and Investments → Add Account, and select Other Taxable under Type.
This flexible account type allows you to set custom Capital Gains and Income Tax Rates on a per-account basis.
From the Savings and Investment section under Type select Other Taxable.
This is a flexible account type that allows you to set custom Capital Gains and Income Tax Rates on an account basis.
Tip 3: Income Not Subject to US Withholdings
If your client receives income not subject to US payroll withholdings:
Select (+) > Income > Other Income.
2. Choose (Taxable) to apply your effective rates.
This input type will not include Social Security or Medicare taxes. If you do need those applied, use the Employment Income option instead.
Final Thoughts
This approach gives advisers flexibility when modeling expat clients without needing to switch to another region’s software. By defining effective tax brackets, you can represent real-world scenarios where standard US rates no longer apply, helping ensure your client’s plan remains both compliant and realistic.
Note: This same approach can also be used to model other unique tax scenarios, such as partial-year residency or clients with mixed-source income across jurisdictions.