BEIJING, July 6 – The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is opening an office and place an attaché within the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

The office, which will open “by the end of the 2008 fiscal tax year” according to Barry Shott, the deputy commissioner for the large and midsize business division, will focus on the Asia-PAcific region serve countries including Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, South Korea, and Japan in addition to China.

The office “will be the face of the IRS in the Far East,” says Shott. The creation of the post is an agency response to the growing importance of the Asia-Pacific markets.

The IRS has already established overseas offices in London, Frankfurt and Paris, and this latest move is seen as an acceptance of the growing importance of developing relationships between foreign governments’ state tax departments and the co-sharing of tax data on both American individuals and multinational earning money overseas. It has not been uncommon elsewhere for U.S. businesses abroad to face visits from IRS officials.

For more information on filing taxes in the United States while living overseas, please visit the IRS website.

U.S. expatriates in China requiring advice over the paying of individual income tax in China and the implications of maintaining part U.S. paid salaries, or for the consolidation of China based accounts to U.S. GAAP standards, please contact tax@dezshira.com.