Month: July 2017

For nearly 20 years, our tax firm, Parent & Parent LLP, as been offering the highest level of protection & the highest quality tax service for our clients in the UK or with investments in the UK and elsewhere around the world.  Our expert team of accountants, CPAs, attorneys, and enrolled agents all work in … Read more

We prepare US tax returns for the highest possible level of IRS scrutiny. This is critical for our clients in Germany and elsewhere around the world as the IRS has been auditing and penalizing international returns at higher and higher frequencies. Because the international penalty scheme of FBARs, and FATCA is so daunting, our clients fully appreciate our thoroughness in making sure we have eliminated all surprises.

An Australian-US tax treaty exists but offers scant benefits. It is routinely mocked as one of the worst tax treaties ever. Efforts are underway to amend the tax treaty, but until then our firm of tax lawyers, CPAs, and tax preparers do the best with the law as it is now: Taking advantage of every benefit and doing our best to avoid the tax treaty pitfalls.

While there is a US-Indian tax treaty that claims to offer benefits, the issue is that the “Savings Clause” of the treaty negates the double-taxation prohibition. Meaning, anything earned in India is subject to US taxation.

There is a massive amount of cross-border activity between the US and Canada. Complicating matters is the IRS, that has strange and unexpected tax rules. Our team of tax lawyers, CPAs, and tax preparers help Canadians in the US and Americans in Canada successfully deal with all the challenges caused by citizenship based taxation, the Foreign Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Bank Secrecy Act’s FBAR/FinCEN Form 114 reporting.

Unfortunately, many inexperienced tax preparers jumped on the IRS disclosure bandwagon and claimed expertise they did not possess. The problem is that the treatment of foreign taxes and assets is completely unlike anything else. We have reviewed hundreds of Streamlined Disclosures, both foreign or domestic, and find obvious errors, and errors not so obvious. But, rest assured, the IRS auditors are better trained to find both.

In late May, a new bill was introduced. Senate Bill 1241 is known as the “Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017″. The proposals in this bill are downright scary. 

Starting in 2018, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) will begin to require a REAL ID in order for a US citizen to board a US domestic flight. Most states issue IDs that comport to the REAL ID standards. However, a few don’t. If you are a US citizen in a state that does not have a REAL ID, you will have to use your US passport or military ID ( if you have one) in order to board. If you do not have such an ID, you can not fly. Or, to put it another way, you are banned.