Archive for Manasa Nadig

Story of A Good Citizen Who Reports Foreign Bank Accounts But Forgets FBARs! Huh?

I have to say today’s blog post was triggered by a phone call a few weeks ago. The would-be client wanted to report his foreign bank accounts. Apparently, this good citizen had all his I’s dotted & T’s crossed – so to speak – so what was the problem you ask? I hate to say this, but it happens more than you would think. He did not know there were additional reporting requirements involved when it came to bank accounts in foreign financial institutions. (More on FBAR thresholds in my post here)

You have to know that the IRS will not impose a penalty for the failure to file the delinquent FBARs if you “properly” reported the foreign bank accounts on your US tax returns, and paid tax on the income from these accounts and have not been contacted by the IRS for an income tax examination or a request for the delinquent returns has not been made by them. Read More

Written by | Posted in FBAR • OVDP

QLACs And RMDs: Need a Break On Your Required Minimum Distribution? Read This!

I had a number of clients hit the magic RMD age this past year. RMD is an acronym for Required Minimum Distributions, if you are getting close to 70 years of age, you will be hearing that a lot. Even if that magic number is quite a ways down the road for you, this is a post you will want to read & remember.

Read more about RMDs in detail here on my blog post.

For a quick recap about what Required Minimum Distributions are, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) defines it as “Required Minimum Distributions generally are minimum amounts that a retirement plan account owner must withdraw annually starting with the year that he or she reaches 70 ½ years of age or, if later, the year in which he or she retires. However, if the retirement plan account is an IRA or the account owner is a 5% Read More

Written by | Posted in IRS • Retirement • Tax Tips

2015: Year End – Tax Planning For Individuals, What To Expect!

It’s November! I am always surprised by it’s arrival and the realization that it’s year-end tax planning time. The shortened day-light hours seem to make that certain without a doubt. So let’s roll-up our sleeves, get down to work and fine-tune possible last-minute strategies for lowering your 2015 tax bill.

Tax Brackets: Let’s take a quick look at the 2015 tax brackets, you will see from the table below that the top tax rate of 39.6% will apply to incomes over $$413,200 (single), $464,851 (married filing jointly and surviving spouse), $232,426 (married filing separately), and $439,000 (heads of households):

The 3.8% net investment income tax and/or the 0.9% Medicare surtax will also apply if you Read More

Written by | Posted in Income Tax • Individual • Retirement • Tax Deductions • Tax Planning

Cybersecurity: Keep Them Virtual Doors Locked Please!

October has been established as National Cyber Security Awareness Month by the Dept. of Homeland Security, to especially educate individuals and small business owners about cyber security. No better time to talk about Cyber Security I thought!

It has been a busy summer over here at MN Tax Solutions LLC. I was taking stock of our big challenges from the 2015 tax season and so I thought I should share some of the important lessons we learnt from it. No matter how many times we say this, it cannot be said enough- It is imperative to take regular stock of your “cyber-security health”! Just like you would go to the doctor for regular check-ups!

What are your best cyber-security practices? What are the types of threats you could face? Read More

Written by | Posted in Individual • Small Business

New Rules On Gifts & Inheritances From Expats Proposed By The IRS

We know that increasing globalization keeps us, Enrolled Agents, on our toes especially when we have to consider advising families, businesses and real property owners who have ties with the US and other countries as well. Thanks to my many clients who have business interests in other countries or still have ties/ families back in the countries they migrated from, I deal with cross-border issues quite often.

Interestingly, this summer we did a work-up for a client who had surrendered their green-card & left the country but due to their length of stay in the country, they could be considered “covered-expatriates”, the clients wanted to set up inheritances for their grand-children who are US citizens. Read More

Written by | Posted in Expatriate • FBAR • Gift Tax

IRA-One Rollover Per Year Rule: Breaking It Down For You!

IRAs or Individual Retirement Accounts are a common vehicle for retirement savings, with tax-free growth or on a tax-deferred basis. There are 3 types of IRAs: Traditional, Roth and Rollover. Each of these have their own rules & regulations for contributions, eligibility, contribution limits, tax savings etc.

So an IRA is essentially a basket in which you keep your stocks, bonds, mutual funds or other assets. IRAs are retirement accounts you can open on your own and unlike 401(k)s provided by employers, have lower contribution limits.

What Is A Rollover?:

A “Rollover” happens when funds from a retirement account such as a 401(k) into an IRA Read More

Written by | Posted in Retirement

New FBAR Deadline: Why This Is Great News?

This is what happened on the last day of July this year (2015): President Obama signed into law H.R. 3236, the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act (The Act). An unlikely vehicle for deadline changes, but it did make some really important changes to Tax Law & Revenue Provisions, including:

1. FinCEN Form 114 (FBAR) filing and extension deadlines;
2. Tax Filing Deadlines;
3. Changes to consistent basis reporting between the estate and the person acquiring the property from the decedent.

Point #3 above modifies due dates for Trust returns: Foreign trusts with US Owners and Read More

Written by | Posted in FBAR • Trust Extensions

Receiving Social Security Benefits While Living Abroad

Social Security – that onerous tax we pay to work in the United States, supposedly for our own retirement but it seems to be more to fund those who are already drawing on it! I have quite a few clients who are on temporary work visas here in the US. They rightfully question whether they will be able repatriate Social Security when they are eligible to draw on it. Or there are those US Citizens who travel after they retire and may even choose to settle abroad or go back to their home country if they had migrated to the USA.

Are You A US Citizen or Not?:

Retirees who are U.S. citizens are entitled to continue receiving benefits for as long as they live outside the United States. However, citizens of other countries who receive Social Security may have some restrictions on how long they can receive benefits while outside Read More

Written by | Posted in Retirement

Tax Related Identity Theft

This past year, Identity Theft has become such a buzz word, that it needs to be revisited on my blog. Between scamming crooks on the phone from off-shore based call centers, hackers believed to be from Russia raiding the IRS website and some more hackers from China getting into the national data-base & managing to steal classified information of hundreds & thousands of federal employees, protecting one’s identity has become a top priority for all.

I wrote about Protecting Your Identity here earlier.

According to today’s news, the scammer who took millions with fake IRS calls from gullible taxpayers was sentenced to 14 years in prison. To many, getting a phone call from Read More

Written by | Posted in Tax Fraud/Evasion/Crimes

Credit Cards: A Necessary Evil!

This email popped up from the Credit Card Insider team just as I was having a conversation about summer jobs with my 19 year old. They asked me if I would be interested in writing a post about advising college students/fresh graduates about credit cards and good practice.

Now, both my teens will tell you that I absolutely love advising, only, they don’t seem to agree on the term used, I think they would rather call it “lecturing” and immediately turn their ears off. (How is that humanly possible, anyway?) Naturally, I immediately shot back an answer to the email, “Serendipitous!” I said, “I would love to.”

If you are a recent college graduate and are trying to stare down a humongous college Read More

Written by | Posted in Tax Tips

What Has Jeeves Got To Do With Taxes?

If you know Jeeves, he is the fictional character in the series of humorous (read rib-tickling funny) short stories by P.G. Wodehouse. Jeeves is a very, very capable valet who gets his employer, Wooster out of many a sticky situation.

My father introduced me to P.G.Wodehouse’s books and there was no turning me back after that. The brilliant comic genius’ writing has kept me enthralled through long train rides, boring summer afternoons, quick breaks in the midst of grueling exams, you get the drift!

Now we may not all be able to afford a Jeeves in our lives, but a very common trend these days is to hire a nanny or an “au pair” if one has small gifts. Considering the sky-rocketing Read More

Written by | Posted in Income Tax • Individual • Small Business • Tax Provision/Tax Reporting
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