Federal Trade Commission | TaxConnections

01 Oct 2020

Economic Impact Payments For U.S. Citizens Abroad

Are you a United States citizen living abroad? For millions of expatriates, help from home is on the way in the form of COVID-19 economic impact payments. Unfortunately, scammers also are on the way, and they’re eager to pluck the payment from your pocket.

Depending on your income, U.S. expatriates can get up to $1,200 each, or up to $2,400 for couples, plus $500 for each qualifying child, just as you would if living stateside. And, most people don’t need to do anything to get their payments. The IRS will deposit your payment directly to your U.S. bank account (the IRS can’t direct deposit money to a foreign account), or mail your payment using information from your 2018 or 2019 tax return or from your Social Security retirement or other federal benefits program.

Written by TaxConnections Admin | Posted in Federal Trade Commission

29 Nov 2017

FTC Charges Academic Journal Publisher OMICS Group With Deceiving Researchers

The Federal Trade Commission has charged the publisher of hundreds of purported online academic journals with deceiving academics and researchers about the nature of its publications and hiding publication fees ranging from hundreds to thousands of dollars.

The FTC’s complaint alleges that OMICS Group, Inc., along with two affiliated companies and their president and director, Srinubabu Gedela, claim that their journals follow rigorous peer-review practices and have editorial boards made up of prominent academics. In reality, many articles are published with little to no peer review and numerous individuals represented to be editors have not agreed to be affiliated with the journals.

Written by William Byrnes | Posted in Education • FTC

28 Nov 2017

FTC Halts the Deceptive Practices of Academic Journal Publishers

Operation made false claims and hid publishing fees, FTC alleges.

A federal court has granted a preliminary injunction requested by the Federal Trade Commission, temporarily halting the deceptive practices of academic journal publishers charged by the agency with making false claims about their journals and academic conferences, and hiding their publishing fees, which were up to several thousand dollars.

Written by William Byrnes | Posted in FTC

22 Aug 2017

FTC v. Affordable Media: Foreign Asset Protection Trust Failures

High net worth individuals are loathe to transfer assets to any entity over which they have no control. This fact creates an unresolvable problem when forming an offshore asset protection trust: so long as a U.S. person can exert even a modicum of control over a foreign entity, a U.S. court has sufficient grounds to rule that a U.S. based debtor can repatriate assets. More importantly, failure to comply with a repatriation order could lead to contempt citation against the U.S. debtor. The facts of Federal Trade Commission v. Affordable Media typify this problem. Read More

Written by Hale Stewart | Posted in International