How does IRS Identify Cases with Audit Potential?
Understanding how the IRS identifies cases that have audit potential can be learned from the CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES (CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE) Report released on July, 2020: Trends in the Internal Revenue Service’s Funding and Enforcement. This report addresses IRS trends in funding, staffing and detailed views of tax law enforcement. IRS Enforces Tax […]
Audit Time for High Income Individuals and their Companies has arrived
On a webinar hosted by the New York University Tax Controversy Forum on June 18, 2020, Douglas O’Donnell (head of the IRS Large Business and International Division/IRS-LBI) stated that the IRS will begin a new campaign to audit hundreds of high-net-worth individuals from July 15, 2020 to September 30, 2020. The audit campaign stems from […]
Willfulness and IRS Foreign Account Reporting Requirements
The IRS Mission Statement states that: “the taxpayer’s role is to understand and meet his or her tax obligations”. Taxpayers fill out their own returns under a “self-assessment voluntary reporting system” because the Taxpayer is the one that possess all the information and not the IRS. A Taxpayer’s actions may create the difference between an […]
Does your Third-Party FATCA Consultant have the experience to interpret the complex US Tax Code?
Foreign Financial Institutions (FFIs) have multiple FATCA reporting compliance responsibilities and face the possibility of penalties for not complying. Understanding and interpreting more than 1,000 pages of FATCA regulations requires an underlying comprehension of their words (a new vocabulary) and the spirit behind their wording to avoid being inadvertently victimized by FATCA sanctions and problems […]
FCInet is Connecting Data with different Worldwide Tax Organizations
In 2018, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) issued a “call to action” for countries to do more to tackle enablers of tax crimes. The result of this “call to action” was the establishment of an operational alliance known as the “Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement”, also known as the “J5”, as […]
The “Affidavit” in the IRS Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures is a Key Component
Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures (Streamlined) is one of the options available for US Taxpayers with unreported foreign financial assets and income. The intention of the program is to provide non-willful uncompliant Taxpayers with a less stressful path toward recovering compliant status. The Streamlined process is available to US individual Taxpayers and Estates that fail to […]
The OVDP is now the VDP
There was and IRS termination of the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) on September 28, 2018. On November 20, 2018, following the OVDP notice of termination, there was a release of a Memorandum announcing the Voluntary Disclosure Practice (VDP). On May 29, 2020 there was the release by IRS of a new Voluntary Disclosure Practice […]
What happens if an FFI loses its GIIN?
In order to be FATCA registered and exempt from withholding by U.S. withholding agents, a Foreign Financial Institution (FFI) must have a Global Intermediary Identification Number (GIIN). A Foreign Financial Institution withoutaGIIN is treated as unregistered in FATCA and faces a 30% withholding tax on certain U.S. source payments of Fixed Determinable Annual Payments (FDAP). […]
FBAR Penalties: Is it per Account or per Violation?
U.S. Taxpayers (includes a citizen, permanent resident, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, trust and estate) are required to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) if they have: a financial interest in or signature or other authority over at least one financial account located outside the United States, AND the aggregate value […]
Are there conflicting signals from IRS as it relates to Section 965?
IRC Section 965 (Treatment of Deferred Foreign Income Upon Transition to Participation Exemption System of Taxation) was part of the TCJA enacted on December 22, 2017. The sections requires a United States shareholder to pay a transition tax on the untaxed foreign earnings of certain specified foreign corporations as if those earnings had been repatriated […]
IRS issues FATCA Relief but not for All
On September 6, 2019, IRS announced Relief Procedures for Certain Former Citizens. These are procedures for certain persons who have relinquished, or intend to relinquish, their United States citizenship, who wish to come into compliance with their U.S. income tax and reporting obligations and who wish to avoid being taxed as a “covered expatriate” under […]
IRS “BEEFS UP” Section 965 COMPLIANCE for 2017 and 2018 Returns
On July 2, 2018, the IRS introduced a Compliance Campaign directed at Section 965 (Transition Tax) of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC). In its original launch, the Section 965 Campaign stated that U.S. shareholder are required to pay a “transition tax” on the untaxed foreign earnings of certain specified foreign corporations as if those earnings […]
