It is no secret that complying with FBAR obligations are a complicated and burdensome process. However, expats and other U.S. taxpayers with foreign assets must satisfy their FBAR disclosure obligations if their foreign assets and accounts exceed certain thresholds. For FBAR, covered individuals are required to file when their aggregate foreign accounts for which they have a financial interest in or signature authority over exceeds $10,000. Clearly, $10,000 is not an especially significant sum of money. Therefore, even individuals who consider themselves part of the middle class can incur significant FBAR penalties. (more…)
For expats and others with potentially significant offshore assets, filing Report of Foreign Bank Account (FBAR) and other informational reports is essential. The failure to file FBAR can be punished with severe consequences and result in monetary consequences for the taxpayer. Many taxpayers believe that this penalty will be rather modest since they didn’t intend to violate FBAR. Unfortunately, the penalty for even accidental noncompliance with the law can be severe and can be imposed for each year where noncompliance existed. (more…)
Whether you are living overseas in a foreign nation as an expatriate or are merely spending some time overseas for business purposes, U.S. tax filing and payment obligations do not vanish the second your leave the U.S. In fact, most expats and others living overseas have additional tax responsibilities and complexities that they must understand and satisfy. Unfortunately, the penalties for a failure to comply with one’s tax payment, tax filing, or informational return duties are severe. Therefore, it is prudent to work with an experienced accountant who is well-versed in the international tax issues faced by expatriate and Americans living overseas. (more…)
Offshore Voluntary Disclosure and Streamlined Voluntary Disclosure are two programs that can permit a taxpayer to correct mistakes made regarding offshore non-compliance. In recent years, an array of obligations regarding the disclosure of offshore accounts and assets have come into effect or have become more strictly enforced. In particular, Report of Foreign Bank Accounts (FBAR) and Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) have given rise to potentially complex and seemingly contradictory informational report filing requirements. Taxpayers have never been asked to hand over more information to the IRS and U.S. Government as they are today. (more…)
This year’s FBAR (Report of Foreign Bank Account) deadline has not quite yet arrived, but this year will mark the last year where the FBAR is due on June 30th. For many expats living in foreign nations like Brazil, China, Saudi Arabia, and other countries the June FBAR filing deadline may have developed into something of a tradition. If so, this is a good sign. FBAR penalties are harsh and the IRS and U.S. government have devoted a significant amount of resources towards identifying and prosecuting individuals who fail to comply with FBAR and other offshore tax disclosure duties. Therefore, if you’ve not already filed an FBAR for this year or if you have failed to file in past years, it is important that you work with a tax professional to correct these errors. (more…)
While the obligation to file FBAR has existed for decades, strict enforcement for compliance failures is a relatively recent phenomenon. For taxpayers and American expatriates holding overseas assets, Report of Foreign Bank Accounts (FBAR), is unfortunately yet another disclosure obligation tat must be satisfied to avoid harsh penalties and other consequences. The failure to file FBAR can result in significant complications in one’s finances, and a need to engage in programs like Offshore Voluntary Disclosure or Streamlined Disclosure to correct the filing failures. (more…)
The FBAR filing deadline is quickly approaching. As the calendar has already turned to June, taxpayers living in the United States and abroad have only weeks to satisfy their potential FBAR filing obligations. The deadline to file a Report of Foreign Bank Accounts is June 30, 2016, and no extension for additional time is available. The failure to file FBAR can result in serious penalties and consequences for the taxpayer. Unfortunately, an FBAR filing is particularly complex and there is significant room for a tax layperson to make mistakes regarding the existence of a duty to file or the information disclosed on the report. (more…)
If you are not a US citizen, you are considered a nonresident alien for tax purposes unless you are able to pass the substantial presence test or the green card test. However, in some cases nonresident aliens can circumvent the results of the green card and substantial presence tests by making their own alien tax status determinations. If you are a nonresident alien when the tax year ends, but your spouse is a resident alien or a US citizen (or vice versa), you may be interested in electing to be treated as a US resident for tax purposes. (more…)
The purpose of the FBAR filing requirement, or Report of Foreign Bank and Accounts, is to crack down on taxpayers who attempt to conceal assets and income held in offshore financial accounts. The Internal Revenue Service imposes harsh penalties for willful and even non-willful violations, and failure to file an FBAR could cost you tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the IRS decides the failure was deliberate, you could even be criminally prosecuted. In light of these considerable consequences, it is critical that you file your FBAR on time – and the deadline has just been updated. (more…)
You may be leaving the United States, but you cannot relinquish your tax liabilities. In an effort to discourage US citizens from renouncing citizenship for tax avoidance purposes, the Internal Revenue Service imposes upon expatriates a tax known as the expatriation tax, or exit tax. It doesn’t matter if you’re a US expatriate living in Lebanon, Greece, Singapore, Switzerland, or anywhere else in the world – you must comply with exit tax requirements if you wish to avoid penalization. (more…)