Tag Archive for Internal Revenue Service

IRS: Offshore Voluntary Compliance Program To End September 28, 2018

IRS - Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program Ends September 28, 2018

The Internal Revenue Service today reminded taxpayers they have until Sept. 28 to apply for the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP).

Since the OVDP’s initial launch in 2009, more than 56,000 taxpayers have used the various terms of the program to comply voluntarily with U.S. tax laws. These taxpayers with undisclosed offshore accounts have paid a total of $11.1 billion in back taxes, interest and penalties. The planned end of the current OVDP also reflects advances in third-party reporting and increased awareness of U.S. taxpayers of their offshore tax and reporting obligations.

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Written by | Posted in IRS • Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program

Report Of Cash Payments Over $10,000 Received In A Trade Or Business – Financial Crimes And Automobile Dealership Transactions

IRS - Reporting On Cash Payments Over $10,000

Generally, any person in a trade or business who receives more than $10,000 in cash in a single transaction or related transactions must complete a Form 8300, Report of Cash Payments Over $10,000 Received in a Trade or Business (PDF). Form 8300 is a joint form issued by the IRS and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and is used by the government to track individuals that evade taxes and those who profit from criminal activities. Although the cash reporting requirements apply to many types of businesses, auto dealerships frequently receive cash in excess of $10,000 and are required to comply with the filing requirements.

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Written by | Posted in IRS • Reporting On Cash Payments

IRS FATCA Foreign Financial Institutions (FFI) Lists 314,027 Financial Institutions Worldwide

IRS, IRS List of FATCA Foreign Financial Institutions

The Foreign Financial Institutions (FFI) List is issued by the IRS and includes all financial institutions, branches, direct reporting non-financial foreign entities, sponsored entities, and sponsored subsidiary branches that have submitted a registration and have been assigned a Global Intermediary Identification Number (GINN) at the time the list was compiled. The list is compiled on a monthly basis and published the first day of each month.

The Foreign Financial Institutions (FFI) list in its entirety along with the Global Intermediary Identification Number (GINN) can be accessed or downloaded in its entirety on the following page:

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Written by | Posted in FATCA Foreign Financial Institution List • Internal Revenue Service

Private Pass-Through Foundation Rules And The 50 Percent Contribution Deduction

IRS, TaxConnections

Contributions to a private nonoperating founda­tion may qualify for the benefit of the 50 percent contri­bution deduction limit, and donors may deduct the full value of appreciated property, if the pri­vate nonoperating foundation:

  1. Distributes an amount equal in value to 100 percent of all contributions received in the tax year by the 15th day of the 3rd month after the close of its tax year,
  2. Has no remaining undistributed income for the year, and
  3. Distributes only qualifying distributions that are treated as distributions out of corpus.

Qualifying distributions cannot be made to:

  1. An organization controlled directly or indi­rectly by the foundation or by one or more disqualified persons, or
  2. A private foundation that is not an operat­ing foundation.

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Written by | Posted in Internal Revenue Service • Passthrough Entities

IRS Reminds Retirees Of April 1, 2018 Deadline To Take Required Retirement Plan Distributions

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today reminded taxpayers who turned age 70½ during 2017 that, in most cases, they must start receiving required minimum distributions (RMDs) from Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and workplace retirement plans by Sunday, April 1, 2018.

The April 1 deadline applies to all employer-sponsored retirement plans, including profit-sharing plans, 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans and 457(b) plans. The RMD rules also apply to traditional IRAs and IRA-based plans such as SEPs, SARSEPs, and SIMPLE IRAs, however, they do not apply to ROTH IRAs. Read More

Written by | Posted in IRA • IRS • Retirement • RMD

Taxpayer Assistance Center Service Continues to Decline, Impairing Taxpayers’ Ability to Receive In-Person Assistance

The other day, I came across an interesting item in the news, describing that for the first time in its history, Macy’s was only letting people with appointments visit its famous Santa. I was interested in this because, for all intents and purposes, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had been “appointment only” in its Taxpayer Assistance Centers (TACs) since November 2016. So on the face of it, the IRS was in the vanguard of customer service.

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Written by | Posted in Taxpayer Advocate

What US Expats Who Receive Form W-9 from a Foreign Bank Should Do

Over the last few years, millions of US expats have been asked by their foreign banks and investment firms to fill out IRS form W-9. Receiving form W-9 often causes surprise or alarm. While there’s no need to panic, there are a number of things that expats should know if they receive form W-9, to ensure that they don’t create any problems in the future. Read More

Written by | Posted in Expatriate • FATCA • Foreign Earned Income • Foreign Entity

Filing IRS Back Taxes for US Expat Americans

American expats are still required to file a US federal tax return to the IRS. As expats also have to comply with the tax rules in the country where they live, it’s counterintuitive but nonetheless important that they file US taxes too.
Taxing US citizens abroad, or Citizenship (rather than Residence) Based Taxation, dates back to the Civil War, but until recently the IRS was powerless to enforce expat taxes, so few expats filed.

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Written by | Posted in Expatriate • FATCA • IRS

Oh Thank Heaven For The IRS!

Barry Fowler

I remember the old jingle for 7-Eleven that sang “Oh thank heaven for 7-Eleven!” Well, now we can add the tax collecting IRS to that jingle. Oh, thank heaven for 7-Eleven and the IRS!

Believe it or not, you can now pay your taxes at that convenience store in 34 states. And, you can even make those payments in cash!

According to a recent announcement from the IRS, “Individual Read More

Written by | Posted in IRS

The Service Issues New Administrative Authority Governing Tangible Property Regulations Compliance

On November 20, 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (hereinafter the “Service”) issued new administrative authority governing the Tangible Property Regulations (hereinafter “TPR”) in connection to the safe harbor rules for the retail and restaurant industries. More specifically, the newly released Revenue Procedure 2015-56 (hereinafter “Rev. Proc. 2015-56) provides a safe harbor method of accounting for taxpayers engaged in the trade or business of operating either a retail establishment or a restaurant for purposes of determining whether expenditures paid or incurred to remodel or refresh a qualified building are:

• Deductible pursuant to I.R.C. § 162(a);

• Requires capitalization treatment as an improvement pursuant to I.R.C. § 263(a); or Read More

Written by | Posted in IRS

The Service Issues New Draft Version of Form 3115

The Internal Revenue Service (hereinafter the “Service”) issued on July 15th of 2015 their long awaited draft version of their revised Form 3115 entitled “Application for Change in Accounting Method” which incorporates revisions to the process for requesting accounting method changes (e.g., accounting method changes in complying with the Final Treasury Regulations governing Tangible Property; accounting method changes in connection to depreciation adjustments resulting from Cost Segregation Analysis; etc.). The draft version of Form 3115 can be accessed at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-dft/f3115–dft.pdf

Once finalized, the latest form will replace the current version, which was previously issued in 2009. The Service requests that comments on the draft Form 3115 be made on Read More

Written by | Posted in IRS
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