As an FBAR and OVDP case support specialist, I really love what I do at Parent & Parent LLP. I'm part accountant, part detective, and part client relations. Let me give you one specific case which is a perfect demonstration of why.
Peter was born in Turkey. When he was 16 years old he moved with his father to the United States for an excellent work opportunity. Peter worked extremely hard and eventually became a U.S. citizen himself. Like many of our clients, he would file his tax returns faithfully every year on his own. He would file his taxes using one of the basic programs that you can get for free. No questions in the program ever asked him about having a foreign account (the Schedule B issue we see so many times).
The complexity of Foreign Bank Accounts
Peter had one foreign account from when he lived in Turkey. He kept this account open primarily as an emergency fund for his family, many of who still lived in Turkey. This particular fixed deposit account would roll over into different CDs every couple of months. Every time the CD would roll over it would generate a new account number. But in Peter’s eyes, he only had one account.
However, in the eyes of the IRS and their FBAR filing requirements, he had many accounts that had to be reported on the FBAR.
Peter came to us extremely anxious; he wasn’t sleeping at night and he felt completely overwhelmed since he found out about his reporting requirements.
While I was preparing his delinquent FBARs, I noticed a time lapse between one of the CDs. There was a 3-month time period where there were no CDs actively open. I called Peter and he said that it was probably just a time period where the CD matured and it didn’t roll over into a new account number until months later. But something seemed off to me. I kept asking him questions and finally asked him to contact his foreign bank to inquire about this small lapse of time. After much research, we found out that there were two additional account numbers that were unaccounted for!
Peter was so incredibly grateful for our research and for pushing him to be sure that were representing every single account that he had. As he thanked me I could sense a bit of peace in his voice for the first time. As I went to bed that evening I thought to myself; Peter is going to have good night’s sleep tonight for the first time in over a year. I smiled and knew that I was a piece of the puzzle that helped to ease Peter’s mind.
Peter’s Streamlined OVDP case was accepted and he's now in 100% compliance. If you need assistance with a tax issue, contact us. We can help.
