US Expatriate Tax Planning - Part 2 - A Podcast with Janathan Allen
Foreign Bank Account Reporting and Employment Tax Enforcement: Ronn Owens interviews Steve Moskowitz
BakerHostetler Attorneys James Mastracchio and Jay Nanavati Discuss Global Tax Enforcement
You may recall that earlier this year the IRS launched an initiative to pursue 125,000 “high-income, high-wealth” taxpayers who have not filed taxes since 2017. These were cases where the IRS received third party information...more
For years, FBAR litigants have made the commonsense argument that large willful FBAR penalties, which can exceed the value of the unreported foreign accounts themselves, violate the excessive fines clause of the Eighth...more
In US Expatriate Tax Planning – Part 2, Ms. Allen picks up the conversation regarding tax and legal issue U.S. expatriates might face. The discussion turns to real estate matters, and the issue of moving money from the United...more
How does the IRS define willfulness in unreported or under-reported offshore income? What actions help determine whether a U.S. taxpayer's actions amount to "willful or non-willful" conduct? Why should U.S. taxpayers be...more
Many US taxpayers still have questions regarding offshore accounts and FBAR filing requirements and compliance. Is there a genuine risk their activities (or lack of compliance) will come to light? The definition of a US...more
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently announced a renewed effort to ensure compliance with federal tax law, specifically focusing on high-income earners, partnerships, and large corporations. This additional scrutiny...more
“Business Email Compromise Scams” or “BEC scams” typically target companies that conduct wire transfers with entities abroad. For example, a fraudster may use an email address that is very similar to that of a business’s...more
The Biden’s Administration 2024 Revenue Proposal includes US taxpayer reporting requirements for foreign digital asset accounts. The proposal would be effective for returns required to be filed after December 31, 2023. Tax...more
The Quincecare duty has become a popular tool for companies (or their liquidators) to claim against banks for funds misappropriated on wrongful payment instructions. It requires a bank to refrain from executing a payment...more
Every year, the IRS compiles a list of common scams that taxpayers may encounter – its so-called “Dirty Dozen.” Today, the Service wrapped up the annual Dirty Dozen list of tax scams for 2023 with a reminder for taxpayers,...more
Harrington v. Commissioner - In Harrington v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, George S. Harrington (Harrington) challenged tax deficiencies and fraud penalties assessed for tax years 2005 through 2010. Originally...more
In this bulletin, we highlight two recent federal court cases in which U.S. taxpayers won major victories against the United States with respect to their obligations to report non-U.S. accounts on FinCEN Form 114 – Report of...more
Taxpayers recently won a significant victory at the Supreme Court in a penalty case involving a non-willful failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (“FBAR”) under the Bank Secrecy Act (the “BSA”)....more
After years of litigation, the United States Supreme Court, in Bittner v. United States, 598 U.S. ____ (2023), determined that the penalty for a non-willful failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts...more
On Feb. 28, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that non-willful penalties related to FBARs apply to each report filed, not on a per-account basis. The 5-4 decision resolved a split between the Fifth and Ninth circuits that focused...more
On Feb. 28, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Bittner v. United States, holding that non-willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) should be handled per annual report, not per bank account, a ruling that saved the...more
Taxpayers who hold foreign accounts finally received clarity as the Supreme Court ruled that the $10,000 non-willful penalty for failure to file a FinCEN Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) applies...more
On February 28, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Bittner v. United States, No. 21-1195, holding that the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) treats the failure to file a legally compliant report as one violation carrying a maximum...more
The Supreme Court decided two cases today, and though neither of them presents the sort of widely consequential matter that, say, the President’s student loan forgiveness plan that was argued this morning does, each has...more
Summary: At its core, this 31-page opinion regards married U.S. citizen taxpayers, Leigh Fairbank (Leigh) and Barbara Fairbank (Barbara), challenge to deficiency notices issued for the tax years in issue (2003 through 2009...more
If you have unreported foreign accounts, you are not alone. Every year, I speak with hundreds of clients with tax non-reporting issues (e.g., FBARs, Form 8938, Form 3520, Form 3520-A, etc.). The good news: the IRS offers...more
Increasing demand for transparency and tax rules focused on the ownership of foreign financial accounts and interests in foreign trusts and entities affect private wealth planning. There are steps you can take to comply with...more
After a yearlong investigation, the US Senate Finance Committee probed into a FATCA Loophole and delivered an investigative report titled “The Shell Bank Loophole” that exposes a tax evasion scheme under a FATCA loophole...more
The Bank Secrecy Act requires certain taxpayers to submit timely FBARs to the United States reporting their interests in foreign accounts. If a taxpayer has an FBAR filing requirement and misses it, the taxpayer can be...more
$50,000 or $2.72 million? Those are the penalty amounts for the non-willful failure to timely file to report foreign financial accounts at issue in U.S. v Bittner, which will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in...more