Category: Asset Protection Planning

Creation of the U.S. Passport Denial and Revocation

Under a law passed by Congress in 2015, the Department of State is required to deny an individual’s passport application and is authorized to revoke or limit an existing passport if the IRS has certified the individual as having a seriously delinquent federal tax debt (i.e., a federal tax debt exceeding $50,000, adjusted annually for inflation, including assessed interest and penalties). The right to travel internationally is a fundamental right of citizenship, and it should not be restricted unless and until a U.S. citizen has been given adequate advance notice that his or her passport may be denied or revoked and an opportunity to resolve the debt or challenge the IRS’s position. Yet under current procedures, the IRS sends the only stand-alone notice to the U.S. citizen regard

UPDATE: US: Passport revocation is now under way

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has formally announced its intent to start enforcing its passport revocation powers against US persons who owe more than USD 51,000 in taxes and penalties. The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), signed into law in December 2015, require

Year End Tax Planning

Year End Tax Planning: You may have to report information about foreign financial assets and accounts in 2017 if you exceed IRS thresholds by or on December 31, 2017!

Be Careful When Revising a Trust

Margaret Chappell created a trust in 2010 and amended it three times before succumbing to cancer in 2016. In the original trust she left everything to her boyfriend, Jose Aviles, on her death. The subsequent amendments changed the distribution provisions with the third amendment naming Tracy Swearingen the sole remainder beneficiary and successor trustee. The third amendment also incorporated by reference the unchanged provisions of the second amendment, including a no contest clause. After Chappell died, Aviles filed a petition to invalidate the third amendment on the grounds that it was the product of undue influence and financial abuse.

Swearingen opposed the petition and filed her own petition to disinherit Aviles based on his violation of the no contest provision. She argued

Being current with the I.R.S. on past tax filings is not your only concern

Recently, my office has seen a marked increase in the number of U.S. Citizens/Green Card Holders and U.S. Resident Aliens coming forward to file past tax returns with the I.R.S. Now, this does present its own set of challenges that we are very capable of successfully handling for you, but most attor

New Due Date for FBARs, April 18, 2017!

Although I have reminded my clients many times that the historical due date for filing FBAR of June 30th has been changed; I continue to find many of my clients still only remembering the old June 30th deadline.

The new annual due date for filing Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) for foreign financial accounts is April 15. This date change was mandated by the Surface Transportation and Veterans Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015, Public Law 114-41 (the Act). Specifically, section 2006(b)(11) of the Act changes the FBAR due date to April 15 to coincide with the Federal income tax filing season. The Act also mandates a maximum six-month extension of the filing deadline. To implement the statute with minimal burden to the public and FinCEN, FinCEN will gr

Credit Suisse European Offices Raided

Here we go again and this is no April Fools Joke, Credit Suisse has confirmed that it has had five of its European offices raided, issuing a statement saying ‘on March 30, 2017, Credit Suisse offices in London, Paris and Amsterdam were contacted by local authorities concerning client tax matters.

The Newest Member of FATCA

On 7 February 2017, Ukraine’s Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk and the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch signed an intergovernmental agreement implementing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). What is FATCA? FATCA was enacted by U.S. Congress in 2010 with the view to t

Expatriation Of U.S. Citizens and GreenCard Holders

For The Last Quarter of 2016.

U.S. citizens who have renounced their citizenship and long-term residents (as defined in IRC 877(e)) who have ended their U.S. resident status for federal tax purposes. Expatriation on or after June 17, 2008 If you expatriated on or after June 17, 2008, the new IRC 877A expatriation rules apply to you if any of the following statements apply. • Your average annual net income tax for the 5 years ending before the date of expatriation or termination of residency is more than a specified amount that is adjusted for inflation ($151,000 for 2012, $155,000 for 2013, $157,000 for 2014, and $160,000 for 2015). • Your net worth is $2 million or more on the date of your expatriation or termination of residency. • You fail to certify on Form 8854 that you have

Could this happen to Coinbase?

On February 3, 2017, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Rueter ruled that Google must provide emails stored overseas to the FBI for their domestic fraud investigation, despite an earlier decision finding no such obligation for Microsoft. The ruling was made in Philadelphia that transferring emails from a

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