Should I Stay or Should I Go? – Part 9

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Written by Michael DeBlis, III | Posted in FBAR • OVDP

Answers to the Most Frequently Asked Questions Regarding OVDP

As a tax attorney specializing in the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP), nary a day goes by that I don’t get a call from a person inquiring about the OVDP. The questions asked are relatively the same. After a while, I began to make a list of the most frequently asked questions. Below are my answers to them: (continued)

XII. I have properly reported all of my taxable offshore income. I only recently learned that I should have been filing FBARs in prior years to report my personal foreign bank account. Must I come forward to disclose this?

The purpose of the voluntary disclosure program is to provide a way for taxpayers who did not report taxable income in the past to come forward voluntarily and resolve their tax matters.

To the extent that a taxpayer has reported and paid tax on all offshore income for prior years but did not file FBARs, he should file delinquent FBARs and include a statement explaining why they were filed late.

The IRS will not impose a penalty for failing to file FBARs so long as there was no underreported tax liability and the taxpayer has not previously been contacted regarding an income tax examination or a request for delinquent returns.

Next: XIII. I have two offshore accounts. No FBARs were filed. I reported all income from one account, but not the other. How do I report this?

In accordance with Circular 230 Disclosure

Michael DeBlis, III

As a former public defender, Michael has defended the poor, the forgotten, and the damned against a gov. that has seemingly unlimited resources to investigate and prosecute crimes. He has spent the last six years cutting his teeth on some of the most serious felony cases, obtaining favorable results for his clients. He knows what it’s like to go toe to toe with the government. In an adversarial environment that is akin to trench warfare, Michael has developed a reputation as a fearless litigator.

Michael graduated from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School. He then earned his LLM in International Tax. Michael’s unique background in tax law puts him into an elite category of criminal defense attorneys who specialize in criminal tax defense. His extensive trial experience and solid grounding in all major areas of taxation make him uniquely qualified to handle any white-collar case.