Foreign Account Filings Top 1 Million; Taxpayers Need to Know Their Filing Requirements

WASHINGTON – Strong and sustained growth of taxpayers complying with foreign financial account reporting reflects improving awareness and compliance of this important part of offshore tax rules, the Internal Revenue Service said today. “Taxpayers here and abroad need to take their offshore tax and filing obligations seriously,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “Improving offshore compliance […]

Scariest Tax Form? Omit It, And IRS Can Audit You Forever

Scariest Tax Form? Omit It, And IRS Can Audit You Forever  Feb 8, 2016   Before you file your taxes, consider how long you must look over your shoulder. In many cases, the IRS has three years to audit. The three years is doubled to six if you omitted more than 25% of your income. […]

“Dirty Dozen” List of Tax Scams for the 2015 Filing Season

February 5th, 2016 Hiding Money or Income Offshore among “Dirty Dozen” List of Tax Scams IR-2015-09, Feb. 5, 2016 WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today said avoiding taxes by hiding money or assets in unreported offshore accounts remains on its annual list of tax scams known as the “Dirty Dozen” for the 2015 filing […]

IRS Launches International Data Exchange

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service announces the opening of the International Data Exchange Service (IDES) for enrollment.  Financial institutions and host country tax authorities will use IDES to securely send their information reports on financial accounts held by U.S. persons to the IRS under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) or pursuant to […]

IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Efforts Produce $6.5 Billion; 45,000 Taxpayers Participate

FS-2014-6, June 2014 Stopping offshore tax cheating and bringing individuals, especially high net-worth individuals, back into the tax system has been a top priority of the Internal Revenue Service for several years. IRS offshore voluntary disclosure programs are designed to encourage taxpayers with undisclosed offshore assets to become current with their tax liabilities. The programs […]

IRS Announces Significant Changes to Streamlined Program

IR-2014-73, June 18, 2014 WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service announced today major changes in its offshore voluntary compliance programs, providing new options to help both taxpayers residing overseas and those residing in the United States. The changes are anticipated to provide thousands of people a new avenue to come into compliance with their U.S. […]

E Filing of FBARs Required

Effective 7/1/2013, all FBARs (Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Account) must be filed electronically. The US Department of Treasury will no longer accept paper filings of FBARs (now Form 114).    

Obama Care & Expatriates

Are U.S. citizens living abroad subject to the individual shared responsibility provision? Yes. However, U.S. citizens who live abroad for a calendar year (or at least 330 days within a 12-month period) are treated as having minimum essential coverage for the year (or period). These are individuals who qualify for an exclusion from income under […]