Dear all, I am new to this forum. Please forgive me if this is a common question, but I was unable to find any other reference to my questions among the archives.

I have been living here in the UK for 2 years now, and have some money in a couple of cash mini-ISAs. ISAs are like Roth IRAs and give tax-free interest earnings within the UK, but I do not know their status in the US (The US requires that we report all income from all sources world-wide) and whether these UK tax free earnings are taxable in the US.

The bigger part of my question, however, is that I am about to buy a flat in London. My financial advisor is setting up a stock ISA (that in vests in a unit trust, similar to a mutual fund) for the repayment portion of a mortgage, with the actual mortgage being an interest-only loan. I am reading now from an American Expat magazine that US does not respect the tax-free status of these ISA accounts, and that unit trusts are a "US tax unfriendly asset" so I am becoming worried about the potential tax liabilities of such an investment.

I cannot post the URL for this particular article I just read, but if you dig up the 2009 Summer edition of American in Britain magazine under "Taxing Issues" you should be able to find the article.

Also, if anyone can recommend a good (and inexpensive) accountant who has experience in US-UK tax issues, I would welcome any and all suggestions.

Thanks!