In recent posts, we’ve explored how maintaining compliance with rules for offshore accounts has become increasingly burdensome in recent years. These burdens include stepped-up enforcement of existing requirements and the implementation of a complicated new law, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). There is another aspect to foreign income reporting, however, that also merits […]

The majority of people put preparing for next year’s tax season at the bottom of their to do list once their tax return is filed. If you’re one of the many people who have been struggling the last few weeks before the deadline, you can save yourself a huge headache and a lot of time […]

This is the first year that the deadline to file an annual Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR or FinCEN Form 114) is April 18th. In the past, it was a June 30 due date with no extension. Who needs to file an FBAR? The triggering threshold is $10,000 in foreign financial accounts. […]

The IRS has been remarkably successful in getting people to enter its limited-amnesty program for undisclosed offshore accounts. In the first part of this post, we took note of some of the reasons for this. The Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) has seemed to offer the opportunity to reduce the risk of criminal prosecution for […]

The ongoing IRS enforcement crackdown on offshore accounts has been remarkably lucrative for Uncle Sam. Since the crackdown began in 2009, it has driven more than 100,000 taxpayers into IRS programs to resolve their offshore compliance issues and generated upwards of $10 billion in back taxes, interest and penalties from those taxpayers. But are more […]

Small businesses and people who work for themselves now have access to an expedited procedure to resolve tax disputes with the IRS. In this post, we will use a Q & A format to update you on the availability of this procedure, which is formally called the Small Business/Self Employed Fast Track Settlement program (SB/SE […]

Being a business owner may involve time warps. When business is good the days fly and there is never enough time to complete everything. When a busy season coincides with tax season, the filing deadline can slip by without you having a chance to get your personal or business return completed. As we approach the […]

In the first part of this post, we discussed the scenario of getting a computer-generated notice informing you that the IRS is proposing changes to your return. This can happen when the income you reported doesn’t match information the IRS has received about your income from employers, banks or other third parties. In this part […]

Every year, millions of taxpayers receive a computer-generated notice from the IRS about (supposedly) underreported income. These notices are called CP2000 or automated underreporting (AUR) notices. They are generated (shall we say “spit out”?) by IRS computers based on a mismatch between the income reported on a taxpayer’s return and information available to the IRS […]

“Fudge” is a peculiar word. As a noun, it refers to a soft, creamy candy or, more generally, to foolish nonsense. As a verb, it means to fake or falsify something, or to bend the rules. When filing taxes, what does it mean to fudge and what can happen if you do? Fudging is hardly […]