The other day our tax lawyers posted the materials we have received so far in response to our FOIA request regarding Australian Superannuation accounts and other foreign retirement plans. The most interesting thing we found was a series of emails between various technical specialists in the IRS’ Offshore Compliance Group,…
Our tax attorneys have had many clients with Superannuation accounts in Australia. For those of you not familiar with Superannuation accounts, these are the Australian version of our tax-favored retirement plans. These Superannuation accounts, sometimes referred to as Supers, can be very problematic for immigrants from Australia to the U.S.,…
Bankruptcy Appellate Panel Finds in Favor of the Taxpayer in Late-Filed Taxes Discharge Question In the previous blog post we set forth the facts in a bankruptcy proceeding where the IRS argued that taxes filed even one day past assessment would result in the nondischargeability of the debt in bankruptcy.…
The Internal Revenue Code and the Bankruptcy Code are each complex laws, but when they intersect things can get quite confusing, and seemingly inconsequential facts can have serious legal consequences. In a recent unpublished opinion, In re Kevin Wayne and Susan Martin, EC-14-1180-KuKiTa (9th Cir. BAP 2015), the Bankruptcy Appellate…
One’s failure to understand the obligations and duties one holds under the U.S. Tax Code can always result in significant additional penalties and interest on any unsatisfied tax debt. Aside from these serious penalties, a proposed provision contained within the pending 2015 highway & transit funding bill, aka the Surface…
One of the top priorities for the IRS and Department of Justice has been the focus on offshore financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers, and used to avoid or defeat the assessment of tax. Underscoring the need for an increased focus on offshore tax enforcement is a 2008 U.S. Senate…
In yet another sign of the rapidly expanding reach of FATCA and the U.S. government’s increased access to account data from around the world, the Turkish government reached a reciprocal information sharing agreement with the United States government. The bottom-line here is that taxpayers holding undisclosed accounts and assets in…
No taxpayer wants to receive news of a tax deficiency, tax audit, or other bad news from the IRS; however, it may turn out that the only thing worse than receiving bad news from the IRS is not receiving notice that you need to take action to correct a past…
The U.S. Tax Code is, essentially, in a constant state of flux. While there are certain bedrock principles, such as the obligation to file and pay taxes, particularities regarding both substantive and procedural handling of tax issues can change with time. Decisions made by judges, changes to the Internal Revenue…
On July 9, 2015, the United States and Indian governments announced that they had entered into a Foreign Account and Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) agreement. FATCA is a U.S. law that has been described by some as a “global banking law.” The reason for this characterization is because the law…