Washington D.C. Tax Law Blog

Washington, D.C., loves acronyms. Nearly everything has one and they are so widespread that a Google search of “government acronyms” delivers a whole slew of sites that offer guides to help people decipher who’s who and what’s what. In the tax realm, the Internal Revenue Service provides a list of about 80 different acronyms. The […]

If you are an American citizen, you must file a U.S. tax return, even if you live abroad and keep all your money overseas. If you are a U.S. citizen living in American, you must inform the IRS of any foreign accounts. Despite these requirements, foreign assets often go overlooked by the IRS — for […]

When dealing with the Internal Revenue Service, it would probably be fair to say that the phrase, “It’s a pleasure doing business with you,” does not gets used much. The controversies the IRS raises tend to be focused on extracting money that individual taxpayers don’t believe they owe. They can involve disputed tax issues such […]

To file or not to file an FBAR report, that may be a question taxpayers with Bitcoin exchange accounts are asking themselves right now. This may be a particularly pertinent question for D.C.-area readers to be posing for two reasons. First, the deadline for filing what is now called the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) […]

What constitutes a bank? The answer to that question is not as clear as it used to be. Recent years have seen growth in the variety of financial institutions seeking to hold bank status and just such a legal challenge is one that will be getting a hearing this week in Washington. The matter is […]

The tax code is a bloated tangle of inscrutable rules and regulations that is Greek to even some of the most highly trained professionals. That being the case, no one expects you to have a fully developed grasp of every way in which a divorce will affect your tax liability. But even without a complete […]

For many individuals who reside in the Washington, DC, metro area, completing their taxes one of the most stressful times of the year. While many likely heaved a sigh of relief once the documents were complete, the matter may not be over for some. According to president of Surevest Wealth Management, about 1 percent of […]

The big talk of the nation’s capitol today, at least from a business perspective, is the guilty plea that Credit Suisse has entered into to resolve U.S. criminal charges. Switzerland’s second-largest bank entered the plea yesterday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia. The charge by prosecutors was that the company conspired for decades to help […]

Teddy Roosevelt was noted for pursuing a policy based on the phrase, “speak softly, and carry a big stick.” Back in the early 20th century, that stick tended to be the use of the military. Today, there are those in Washington who might argue that such gunboat diplomacy has been replaced by more subtle tactics, […]

We have made a point in recent months to highlight issues related to the U.S. government’s deep focus on thwarting suspected tax evasion through the use of foreign accounts. Our efforts have attempted to provide some clarity about the conditions under which taxpayers must submit a Foreign Bank and Financial Account Report (FBAR) as part […]