Mountain View, CA
Tax preparation and planning for Google employees, H1B and green card holders with foreign assets, dual citizens, and Mountain View households with international family or business ties. Form 5471, 8865, FBAR, PFIC, RSU and 401(k) coordination under one roof. Open 7 days a week.
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If you live in Mountain View and work at Google, walk through Shoreline most days, or just keep a foreign brokerage open from your years before the H1B, your tax return is not the same return your neighbor in Iowa files. A Mountain View tax accountant who handles the same situations every season can be the difference between a six-figure international information-return penalty and a clean filing. The hardest part is not the federal 1040 itself. It is the alphabet soup of disclosure forms that ride along with it: Form 5471 for foreign corporations, Form 8865 for foreign partnerships, FBAR for foreign accounts, Form 8938 under FATCA, and Form 8621 for every PFIC you happen to own.
We are Silicon Valley Tax, a full-service CPA and tax firm based in San Jose with a Mountain View client base built around Google employees, H1B and green card holders with assets abroad, dual citizens, and Mountain View tech households whose parents or siblings still hold a family business overseas. This page walks through the most common Mountain View tax situations we see, the dollar exposure when they go wrong, and a worked example of a Google senior engineer whose return touches every one of them in a single year.
Three things make Mountain View tax returns substantively different from a generic Bay Area return.
Google compensation density. Mountain View is where Googlers actually live. RSU grants at Google can run from $50,000 a year for early-career engineers to $1M+ a year at L7 and above. The mismatch between the 22% federal supplemental withholding rate on RSU vesting and the 32% or 37% marginal rate that most Googlers actually owe is the single most common reason Mountain View households get hit with an unexpected April tax bill. The withholding gap on a $400,000 RSU vest can easily exceed $40,000 in unwithheld federal tax, and California adds another 10.3% to 13.3% on top.
H1B and green card density. A large share of Google's Mountain View workforce arrived from India, China, Korea, Taiwan, the UK, Israel, or Canada. Many keep brokerage accounts, employer pensions, family business interests, or inherited real estate in the home country. Once you become a US tax resident under the substantial presence test, the IRS taxes that worldwide picture, and every foreign account or entity adds a disclosure form.
International family ties. Even for US-born employees, Mountain View has a high density of households where a parent runs a foreign-incorporated business, a sibling holds an offshore partnership interest, or an inheritance is sitting in a foreign trust. The instant you cross the 10% ownership line in a foreign corporation, Form 5471 turns on. The instant a foreign trust distributes to you, Form 3520 turns on. Most filers do not know these forms exist until a penalty notice arrives.
The penalty regime for international information returns is much harsher than the regime for the underlying tax. Skipping a $0-tax-due Form 5471 still costs $10,000 per year per form. The table below summarizes the forms we file most often for Mountain View clients.
| Form | Trigger | Penalty for non-filing |
|---|---|---|
| Form 5471 | 10% or greater ownership of a foreign corporation, or officer/director status of a foreign corp where any US person owns 10%+. | $10,000 per form per year under IRC 6038(b), plus statute of limitations on the entire return stays open. |
| Form 8865 | 10% or greater ownership of a foreign partnership, certain contributions, or certain dispositions. | $10,000 per form per year, similar regime to 5471. |
| FBAR (FinCEN 114) | Aggregate foreign account balances exceed $10,000 at any point in the year. | Non-willful: up to $10,000 per violation. Willful: greater of $100,000 or 50% of account balance per year. |
| Form 8938 (FATCA) | Foreign financial assets exceed $50,000 single / $100,000 joint at year-end (higher thresholds for taxpayers abroad). | $10,000, rising to $50,000 for continued failure after IRS notice. |
| Form 8621 (PFIC) | Ownership of a Passive Foreign Investment Company, including most non-US mutual funds and ETFs. | Statute of limitations stays open on the entire return until filed. |
| Form 3520 / 3520-A | Receipt of a foreign gift over $100,000, distribution from a foreign trust, or ownership of a foreign grantor trust. | Greater of $10,000 or 35% of the unreported amount. |
FBAR vs Form 8938 is the most commonly confused pair. FBAR is filed with Treasury, threshold $10,000, covers any financial account. Form 8938 is filed with the IRS as part of the 1040, threshold $50,000 for single filers in the US, and covers a broader set of foreign financial assets. Most Mountain View international filers must file both. Our detailed walkthrough lives in our FBAR filing deadline 2026 guide.
Form 5471 is the most common surprise we see for Mountain View clients with international family. A parent in India incorporates a small consulting company. You are listed as a 25% shareholder so your father has a US-based heir for visa or inheritance reasons. You did not contribute capital. You may not even have known. The form is required anyway, and the $10,000 per year penalty has been applied to taxpayers who claimed they did not know they were a shareholder.
There are five filer categories, each with different triggers and different schedules to complete. Category 4 (control) and Category 5 (10% US shareholder of a Controlled Foreign Corporation) are the heaviest. CFC ownership also triggers GILTI inclusion under IRC 951A, Subpart F income inclusion, and a Section 250 deduction analysis. Our Form 5471 explained post walks through the categories, the schedules, and the safe-harbor election that can simplify dormant entities.
This is the trap that catches almost every H1B Googler with a leftover brokerage account in their home country. A non-US mutual fund, ETF, or unit trust is, with very rare exceptions, a Passive Foreign Investment Company. Under the default IRC 1291 regime, distributions and gains are taxed at the highest ordinary rate that applied during your holding period, plus an interest charge for the deferral. The effective rate can exceed 50% federal even when your regular bracket is 24%.
Two elections rescue this if made in time: the Qualified Electing Fund (QEF) election under IRC 1295, which taxes you on your share of the fund's income as it accrues, and the mark-to-market election under IRC 1296 for publicly traded PFICs. Both must generally be made in the first year of ownership. Form 8621 is required annually for each PFIC, even at very small balances. Our PFIC reporting guide covers the elections and the cleanup path for taxpayers who have held PFICs for years without filing.
The international forms get the headlines, but RSU and 401(k) planning is where most Mountain View Googlers leave the most money on the table. Three lessons we repeat every season:
Priya is an L6 software engineer at Google in Mountain View, on a green card since 2022. Her 2025 picture:
US income: $310,000 W-2 base, $420,000 of vested RSUs (already on the W-2), $18,000 ESPP discount, mega-backdoor Roth eligible.
India side: Her father incorporated a small software consulting Pvt. Ltd. in Bangalore in 2018 and listed Priya as a 30% shareholder. The company has $180,000 of annual revenue and a modest profit. Priya also kept an HDFC mutual fund holding worth roughly $42,000 from her pre-US years. She has a Kotak brokerage account that peaked at $61,000 during 2025.
What her return looks like done correctly:
1. Form 1040 with worldwide income. RSU + ESPP income already on the W-2; we recompute supplemental withholding gap (roughly $42,000 federal short on the RSU vest at 32% marginal vs 22% withheld) and run Q4 estimated payments to avoid the underpayment penalty.
2. Form 5471 as a Category 5 filer for the Indian Pvt. Ltd. (30% ownership of a CFC). Schedules C, E, F, G, H, I, J, P. GILTI inclusion computed under IRC 951A.
3. FBAR for both the HDFC mutual fund account and the Kotak brokerage (aggregate well over $10,000 at peak).
4. Form 8938 filed with the 1040, since the year-end aggregate is above the $50,000 single threshold.
5. Form 8621 for the HDFC mutual fund, which is a PFIC. Mark-to-market election filed (publicly traded), which avoids the 1291 interest charge for the current year and going forward.
6. Form 1116 Foreign Tax Credit for the Indian tax on the consulting company's GILTI inclusion.
7. Mega-backdoor Roth at Google funded to the after-tax max, then in-plan Roth-converted. Roughly $34,500 of after-tax contributions converted to Roth in 2025.
What it would have looked like missed: Skipping the 5471 alone exposes her to $10,000 per year per missed year, with the statute of limitations on her entire return staying open until filed. Skipping the 8621 with default 1291 treatment on a future PFIC sale could tax the gain at the highest ordinary rate plus an interest charge, potentially adding $20,000+ to a single liquidation. FBAR non-filing exposes her to up to $10,000 per non-willful violation per year.
Our office at 2051 Junction Ave in San Jose is a 15-minute drive from downtown Mountain View via 101 or 85. We are open Monday through Friday from 8am to 8pm and Saturday and Sunday from 8am to 6pm. Mountain View clients are also welcome to handle the entire engagement virtually through our secure document portal. We send mid-year planning meetings on the calendar so the international forms get scoped early, not in the April 14 scramble.
Office: 2051 Junction Ave, San Jose, CA 95131
Phone: (408) 383-9870
Email: admin@siliconvalleytax.co
Hours: Mon-Fri 8am-8pm, Sat-Sun 8am-6pm
Serves: Mountain View 94040, 94041, 94043; Palo Alto, Los Altos, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, San Jose, and the rest of the South Bay and Peninsula.
Form 5471 is required when a US person is an officer, director, or 10% or greater shareholder of a foreign corporation. There are five filer categories with different triggers. Late or missing 5471 filings carry a $10,000 per form per year penalty under IRC 6038(b), and the statute of limitations on the entire return stays open until the form is filed.
FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is filed with the Treasury Department, not the IRS, and is required when the aggregate value of all foreign financial accounts exceeds $10,000 at any point during the year. Form 8938 is filed with the federal tax return under FATCA and has higher thresholds, starting at $50,000 for single filers living in the US. Most international filers must file both. They report overlapping but not identical information.
A Passive Foreign Investment Company (PFIC) is generally any foreign corporation where 75% of income is passive or 50% of assets produce passive income. Most non-US mutual funds, ETFs, and unit trusts are PFICs. Default PFIC taxation under IRC 1291 is punitive, often taxing gains at the highest ordinary rate plus an interest charge. Form 8621 must be filed annually for each PFIC, and a QEF or mark-to-market election made in the first year of ownership avoids the worst outcomes.
Yes. The US is one of only two countries that taxes its citizens on worldwide income regardless of residency. Dual citizens must file Form 1040 every year their gross income exceeds the filing threshold, plus FBAR and likely Form 8938. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (up to $130,000 for tax year 2025) and Foreign Tax Credit can reduce or eliminate the tax owed, but the filing obligation itself does not go away.
If you are a US tax resident under the substantial presence test, you file Form 1040 as a resident reporting worldwide income, including RSU vesting (already on your W-2) and any interest or capital gains in foreign accounts. If the aggregate balance of foreign accounts exceeds $10,000 at any point in the year, file FBAR. If it exceeds the FATCA threshold (typically $50,000 for single filers), also file Form 8938. If you own 10% or more of a foreign corporation, add Form 5471. If you hold foreign mutual funds, add Form 8621 for each PFIC.
Yes, through Form 1116 you can claim a Foreign Tax Credit dollar for dollar against US tax on the same income, up to the US tax that would have been owed on that foreign-source income. For passive income above $300 (single) or $600 (joint), the form is required. The credit is generally better than the deduction, since it reduces tax directly rather than reducing taxable income.
The international information return regime does not forgive ignorance, and the RSU withholding gap does not announce itself before April. The right time to scope a Mountain View tax engagement is mid-year, when there is still room to file a PFIC election, set up Q4 estimates, and fund the mega-backdoor Roth. Whether you live near downtown Mountain View, in the Cuesta Park area, or up the hill in the Waverly neighborhood, we serve the entire 94040, 94041, and 94043 zip code footprint. Book a free consultation and we will look at your last filed return, your equity package, and your foreign footprint before quoting the engagement.
Form 5471, FBAR, PFIC, RSU planning, mega-backdoor Roth. One firm, one engagement, no handoffs. Book a free 30-minute scoping call.