Month: April 2018

For years we have been claiming the US tax code is the most complicated thing in the history of history. And tasked with administrating the law is the IRS. Yet, the IRS often finds itself stumbling over its own data and routinely gets things wrong. Things that it seems the IRS should be getting wrong. And recently new evidence supporting the proposition that the IRS is overwhelmed is discovered. IRS Letter 5935 with accompanying Form 15023. In this article, we will illustrate the problem the IRS has tracking offshore voluntary disclosures, and perhaps more importantly, stopping bigger problems taxpayers can can cause themselves by not understanding the IRS is the one who may have made a mistake.

The IRS Fresh Start program has been a marketing success — for the IRS. Despite the IRS Fresh Start Program not really being a program, just slightly different settlement guidelines, taxpayers’ interest in making a “Fresh Start” has been significant. Following suit are states like Connecticut, with their own claimed “Fresh Start program.” In this article we will discuss just how different the approaches are and what to do if Connecticut asks you to make a Fresh Start.

A new bill, The Taxpayer First Act of 2018 has bipartisan support and it is making its way through Congress. We expect it to pass. While there are some helpful items in the bill, many of them are rehashed ideas that failed, or lack any concrete metric for success. We expect money to be spent, but leading to nothing positive. Yet there is some good. So let’s get to it.

Set-backs be danged. This is not over, in fact, we are closer than ever to ending FATCA and the global tax reporting nightmare for US persons living overseas.
In this video, tax attorney Anthony Parent leads a discussion of the repeal of FATCA, the impacts of IRC Sec 965 “transition tax” & the hoped for territorial taxation for individuals (TTFI).