Tax Topics

U.S. taxpayers with more than $10,000 in a foreign financial account at any time during the calendar year are required to report foreign financial interests on Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR). Since the financial crisis in 2008, the government has increased its attention to overseas […]

Leanne Fryer Broyles, Esq. Most people are familiar with the concept of a “spendthrift”- a person who is recklessly wasteful with his or her spending. While the spendthrift trust bears the name of the type of person for whom it was designed, its modern purpose is much broader. Anyone leaving substantial means to their beneficiaries […]

Late last month Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced what he said was one of the largest sanctions actions every taken by Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The sanctions are aimed at 271 employees of the agency of the Syrian government believed to have been involved in chemical weapons attacks. These individuals are now […]

Living outside the U.S. can have many benefits, both cultural and financial. But in terms of complying with U.S. tax laws, expatriates carry more burdens, not fewer, than taxpayers who live in the U.S. In this post, we will use a Q & A format to address the issue of tax compliance for U.S. citizens […]

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 […]

If you get behind on your taxes, the IRS could try to go after your paycheck to collect the debt. In this post, we’ll address frequently asked questions about this process. What does “garnishment” mean exactly? Garnishment is an old legal term for the procedure used to take property to pay a debt. In the […]

In the first part of this post, we began discussing collection due process (CDP) rights. Those rights and required procedures are important in establishing the rules that the IRS has to play by when seeking to collect back taxes. In this part of the post, let’s look at some of the reasons why people can […]

The IRS’s stepped-up enforcement campaign on offshore account disclosure has been going on for years now. Combined with the rollout of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, it has put great pressure on taxpayers with offshore holding as well as foreign financial institutions. Faced with possible criminal penalties, many taxpayers have chosen to participate in […]

Glen Frost is advocating for a same country exemption from FATCA reporting for citizens living abroad: https://www.internationalinvestment.net/products/american-expat-group-calls-country-fatca-exemption/ Here is the text of the letter from American Citizens Abroad to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Tax Affairs Robert Stack: August 10, 2016 The Honorable Robert B. Stack Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Tax Affairs United […]