I agree with Deepak75019 and lvnp that this is a concern. Another concern is whether you've continued to file US tax returns. Even though you would probably be considered--for immigration purposes--to have abandoned your US residency if you ever tried to enter the US again with your existing green card, that doesn't necessarily terminate your residency for tax purposes:
You continue to have U.S. resident status, under this test, unless:
- You voluntarily renounce and abandon this status in writing to the USCIS,
- Your immigrant status is administratively terminated by the USCIS, or
- Your immigrant status is judicially terminated by a U.S. federal court.
(from
http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Alien-Residency---Green-Card-Test) Have any of those three things happened? Note that something definitive must be done to terminate your green card residency for tax purposes--simply leaving the country and letting your status lapse won't cut it for tax purposes. If neither you, the USCIS, or the courts have taken definitive action to terminate your status, you may (probably are) still required to file US tax returns. You may not actually owe any US tax but you are still required to file US tax returns every year--not just in 2011 when you had US income.
Moreover, under FATCA--a law I disagree with but it seems to be the law of the land of the USA--it is getting much harder to fly under the radar as a US taxpayer living outside the US. If your bank in India knows about your US status, your bank account information could easily get transmitted to the US IRS. Also depending upon your assets, you may be personally required to report on your assets via FBAR's and IRS forms--although it sounds like your assets could be small enough to avoid this. And it is possible that your bank in India doesn't know about your US status, as you relocated back to India well before FATCA became law and you weren't (AFAIK) born in the US. But I wouldn't count on continuing to remain under the radar with your bank.
I'm not sure where the dividing line is between simply owing tax you haven't paid for which administrative penalties are accumulating--and where it rises to the bar where criminal tax evasion charges might be filed. I suspect it varies on a case by case basis and I suspect they don't have the resources to actually prosecute most of the time. But my point is that if you have some assets in India--even if less than the total amount you owe--with FATCA there is a risk that the US IRS will find out and have hard evidence that could--if they decided to really play hardball--file tax evasion charges.
My recommendation would be to speak with tax advisors both in the US and India--the latter could probably tell you how FATCA is actually being implemented on the ground in India. They should be able to advise you as to how risky it would be for you to actually travel to the US. It might be that the risk is low. But it would be worth finding out as well as you can before deciding whether it is worth it to take the risk of US travel.
