Archive for FATCA

When Junior Has A Foreign Bank Account: What’s To Be Expected!

Manasa Nadig

I looked up my last blog post and realized I have not posted here since January! What a tax season it was, and how did time get away from me? Oh wait…I know how!

The past few years have seen a steady growth of a client base that has foreign accounts: no complaints there! Most clients have very routine FBAR filing requirements but then sometimes things are a little out of the ordinary and that gets me all excited…yes, I know..it does! That either tells you about my lack of a life during tax season or we should just notch it up to tax nerd-iness!

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Written by | Posted in Expatriate • Family Tax • FATCA • FBAR • Form 1040

More than 1,700 entities disclosed on the Panama Papers leak have also registered with the IRS that they comply with FATCA

William Byrnes

Following yesterday’s Panama Papers Leak it can be seen that at least 1,700 legal entities on that list are also on the IRS list that “includes all foreign financial institutions and branches with approved FATCA registration at the time the list is compiled”.

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Written by | Posted in FATCA • Mossack Fonseca • Panamanian Leak

Panama Papers Leading to 30 Country Interlinked Beneficial Ownership Registry for Company and Trusts

William Byrnes

Over 20 countries have joined the UK-led pilot to automatically share ownership information for companies. As such their tax and law enforcement agencies will now exchange data on company beneficial ownership registers and new registers of trusts enabling more effective investigation of financial wrongdoing and tax-dodging.  [See free SSRN download of Lexisnexis® Guide to FATCA Compliance 2016] Read More

Written by | Posted in FATCA • Panamanian Leak

Is This Canadian Baby An American Tax Cheat?

Is This Canadian Baby An American Tax Cheat?

A Canadian baby is learning about taxes, banking and activism at a tender age. The eight month old girl received a “Dear Valued Customer” letter from her Canadian bank when she was six months old advising her that her account information may be provided to Canada Revenue Agency to pass on to IRS.  The wee “Valued Customer” was directed to complete, sign and mail forms to the bank.

Baby Elle (not her real name) and her Canadian parents were Read More

Written by | Posted in Canada • FATCA • FBAR • FinCEN • International • IRS • OVDP • United States

Commentary on the The Panama Papers & The Disclosure of 14,000 Clients’ 214,000 Offshore Companies Files and Assets

A leak of searchable 11.5 million files, that’s 2.6 terabytes of data, from the embattled offshore services provider Mossack Fonseca. Every email, client note, asset and income statement, instruction, communication, .. since 1977!  2.6 terabytes of data, 11.5 million files, is a lot of files and scanned documents to comb through, so this leak is potentially, and probably, more significant than the 2014 ICIJ reported on leak or even the HSBC and UBS’ leaks. Read More

Written by | Posted in BEPS • FATCA • OVDP

Most U.S. Expats Do Not File Correct U.S. Tax Returns

By Ephraim Moss, Esq. & Joshua Ashman, CPA

For most U.S. citizens living abroad, life is pretty good – at least that’s what the latest statistics are telling us.  In a 2015 survey  of thousands of expats worldwide, a whopping 81% responded that they are generally happy with life overseas.

At the risk of spoiling this picture of expat bliss, further statistics show, however, that most U.S. expats are failing quite miserably in the area of tax compliance.

The reason is basically two-fold. First, there are millions of U.S. citizens living abroad that simply don’t file returns despite their continuing obligation to do so.  Many of these expats are Read More

Written by | Posted in Exit Tax • Expatriate • FATCA • Individual • International

FATCA 2015 Roundup: It’s All Serious Business!

TaxConnections Member Manasa Nadig

A lot has been written about the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act {FATCA} in the past year. As this year comes to a close and I write up this post, I wanted to give you all, my dear readers a synopsis at your finger-tips, a round-up, if you will of some major FATCA events for 2015:

1. FBAR Deadlines Changed:

On July 31, 2015 President Obama signed the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015 into law, which modified the due date of several key forms for Americans with foreign income and Americans living abroad. That includes the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, or Form 114, colloquially known as the FBAR.

Any U.S. person with a financial interest in, or signatory authority over, foreign financial accounts must file the FBAR, if at any time, the aggregate value of their relevant foreign account or accounts exceeds $10,000. An account over Read More

Written by | Posted in FATCA • FBAR • Federal • Income Tax • Individual • International • OECD • OVDP • Tax Planning

Streamlined Program Will Expire!

TaxConnections Member Larry Stolberg

The updated Streamlined Program that was revised in June 2014 is a simplified method of allowing delinquent U.S. taxpayers to become tax compliant. If certain conditions are met, tax and information return penalties could be waived. Refer to my article on the website and the IRS site for additional information on the program.

On December 17th at the George Washington University Law conference on international taxation, the Commissioner of the IRS John Koskinen said, “At some point, we will have assumed that people have had enough notice that they should have become voluntarily compliant,” “At that point—after some period of time and you’re not compliant—it will be assumed that logically you are purposely not compliant”. Read More

Written by | Posted in Expatriate • FATCA

No Form 1042 Extensions, Higher Penalties And No Refunds – IRS Changes Its Ways!

As readers may recall, in 2013 IRS launched a new foreign payment practices (FPP) division under the LB&I to specifically oversee withholding agents’ compliance activities. The short article is intended to make the withholding agents and other affected taxpayers/ tax professionals aware that FPP has recently begun proposing significantly higher penalties for late filing of Form 1042-S and 1042 by the withholding agents.

Generally, Form 1042 and 1042-S are required to be filed by the withholding agent with regard to the U.S. source income paid to the non-U.S. persons. The forms must be prepared for the calendar year regardless of the withholding agent’s taxable year. These Forms are due on or before March 15th of the following calendar year. They must also be furnished to the payees by the same date.  Read More

Written by | Posted in FATCA • International • IRS

Distributions From Canadian RRSPs Are Subject To #Obamacare Surtax While Distributions From US Plans Exempt

Yes, you read right.

By way of background, Obamacare was financed in part by the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax (“NIIT”). At the risk of oversimplification, this is a tax on passive income. What those Canadians who are also “U.S. persons” need to know includes:

1. The NIIT is an instance of pure double taxation. It is believed by most practitioners that this tax CANNOT be offset by the usual foreign tax credit rules. (But, then again – maybe the NIIT is really a Social Security Tax and therefore NOT payable under the Canada U.S. Social Security Totalization Agreement.) Read More

Written by | Posted in FATCA

Part 15 – Understanding “Exit Taxes”

Interview with GordonTLong.com – Citizenship based taxation, PFIC, the S. 877A Exit Tax and #Americansabroad

On May 22, 2015 I was interviewed by Gordon T. Long. There is NO way to discuss U.S. “citizenship taxation” (which is primarily “place of birth taxation”) without discussing the S. 877A Exit Tax rules. During the month of April 2015, I wrote a 14 part series on “How the S.877A rules affect Americans abroad“. The interview with Mr. Long serves as a good reminder (or if you don’t want to read the posts) on:

– what it means to be a “covered expatriate”

– how the U.S. S. 877A “Exit Tax” rules operate to impose punitive “taxation” on non U.S. pensions (See the actual Read More

Written by | Posted in Expatriate • FATCA
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