The FBAR… anyone familiar with that term?  I would assume that most people aren’t, so let me explain. The FBAR is an acronym for the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts and is actually a form known as the TD F 90-22.1, a pdf directly downloadable from the IRS for your filing convenience.  Kelly Phillips Erb, aka: Tax Girl,  wrote an article for Forbes online explaining the important
[Read More]

You may recall hearing about the UBS-US deal last year when the IRS uncovered thousands of offshore bank account holders who weren’t paying taxes on their foreign funds.
Well, that was just the beginning. The IRS has moved onto unveiling more tax evaders from other countries like India. The IRS is moving to develop a system of regulations that will require foreign banks to give the government more information about those
[Read More]

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how the IRS is getting strong financial support from the Obama administration to step up enforcement efforts in order to close the $345 billion tax gap.
Recently, four Swiss bankers have been indicted by the U.S. government for plotting to help wealthy Americans to evade income taxes with the use of offshore bank accounts. According to Forbes, “the defendants were in a plot
[Read More]

The IRS is giving foreign account holders another chance to get back into the system with their Limited Amnesty disclosure program to expire in August 2011.
Last time the IRS offered this amnesty program in 2009, some 15,000 consumers with undisclosed offshore accounts fessed up, paying the IRS a collective $400 million in revenue. Hoping for a repeat, the IRS is offering the limited amnesty program again this year to give
[Read More]

For those who hold offshore or other undeclared foreign accounts, it’s time to become compliant. That is the message the IRS is sending to Americans who have sheltered funds in other countries. The IRS has been putting tremendous pressure on foreign banks—with success—to disclose their American account holders. Swiss giant UBS, in the face of legal action by the IRS, finally capitulated and disclosed its American clientele, and the IRS
[Read More]

Many taxpayers facing the tough year of 2009 may find themselves unable to pay their full taxes in 2010 or unsure about how to resolve the back taxes that they already owe. This is why it’s a pleasure for me to sit down with people like Scott Mason of KROQ to share some free tax help advice to listeners.
Right now we are seeing some real desperate situations where many people
[Read More]

While the IRS is still busy sifting through some 7,500 names of Americans who disclosed their foreign bank accounts before the amnesty deadline earlier this month, Uncle Sam is already focusing its resources on catching other wealthy people who may have been evading taxes through other creative means aside from using foreign bank accounts.
This latest IRS reorganization program is lead by the “Global High Wealth Industry Group,” which will will
[Read More]

This Thursday’s deadline for Amnesty has many wealthy Americans with foreign bank accounts nervous and scrambling to get tax help from their tax attorneys. Don’t miss your chance of significantly reducing your likelihood of facing criminal prosecution–if you have foreign bank accounts (either with UBS or some other foreign bank) with funds that you have not paid taxes on, get tax help now before it’s too late.
The issue started this
[Read More]