02/08/2016
Hidden inside a highway funding bill that Congress is expected to pass later this month, is a measure that will give the State Department the ability to revoke the passports (or deny their renewal) of people who are behind on their taxes, the Wall Street Journal recently reported. The new law will affect people who […]
02/08/2016
Following recent disclosure that the IRS will soon have the ability to revoke passports of US citizens who owe more than $50,000 of back taxes, fines and interest, we thought it was an opportune moment to take a look at what information the IRS is collecting on Americans living abroad. Historically, the IRS relied on […]
02/06/2016
Welcome to the era of Big Data. The IRS has rapidly expanded its technology so that at a glance they can track virtually everything you do worldwide. It is no longer prudent for any American living outside the US to base any personal planning, including US tax compliance, on the assumption that the US government […]
02/05/2016
If you have a bank account anywhere outside the US, starting in 2015, chances are you will receive a letter saying that your bank must hand over the details of any American accounts, including yours. The letters vary with the country and with individual institutions. But the overall message is that the IRS is about […]
02/05/2016
For three years now, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service has moved to deploy a massive dragnet to stop tax cheats from stashing cash offshore. The crackdown hinges on identifying every account held by every American anywhere in the world, no matter how small. Collect everything to nab and punish relatively few big law breakers. The […]
02/05/2016
“FATCA was created in part because of the fear of the United States government that the globalization of finance would give far more people the opportunity to hide their money. It was becoming very clear that it wasn’t going to be just the very wealthy, but that it could really be the middle class and […]
02/05/2016
An astounding 77,000 banks and financial institutions—even some in Russia—have registered under FATCA—the Foreign Account Tax ComplianceAct. America’s global tax law requires foreign banks to reveal American accounts holding over $50,000. Non-compliant institutions could be frozen out of U.S. markets, so everyone is complying. The fact that 77,000 banks have registered and some 70 countries […]
02/05/2016
Recently the FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report) and FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) filing requirements have generated quite a bit of controversy, as they pertain to the recent IRS crackdown on financial assets in overseas accounts. FATCA in particular has caused some uproar since going into effect in March 2010, as foreign financial institutions […]
02/04/2016
A California businessman has pleaded guilty to concealing a foreign bank account at an Israeli bank on his 2007 tax return. Moshe Handelsman of Saratoga, Calif., pleaded guilty Wednesday to filing a false tax return for tax year 2007. According to the plea agreement, between approximately 1993 and 2000, Handelsman, a U.S. citizen, used three […]
02/04/2016
Suddenly, some expats are waking up in a cold sweat. They have always had to file tax returns and disclose foreign accounts on a form called the FBAR, although in practice many didn’t. But now Fatca means they have to be more rigorous or face huge fines, in the knowledge that the US authorities could […]