It’s been a few months now since Congress passed a bill to require the IRS to use private debt collectors in certain cases. The National Taxpayer Advocate and other critics contended that the bill was not a good idea because two previous efforts to use private industry to collect tax […]
There are several ways in which divorce can affect your taxes. If you have children, one of the issues is who gets the tax exemption for dependent children. We discussed that a few months ago, in our October 10 post last year. In this post, let’s look at the question […]
The U.S. Tax Court is an important forum for challenging IRS action in certain cases. Using its authority under Article I of the Constitution, Congress created the court to have jurisdiction over a number of different areas of tax law. But is there a lower limit on the size of […]
Are you a resident of Houston? Because of historic flooding that started on April 17, the IRS is giving you until September 1, 2016 to file your tax return and pay your taxes. This announcement followed a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster declaration. Affected taxpayers in Fayette, Grimes, Harris and […]
The most recent answer from the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is yes. Why can’t you claim a Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination? The answer is the required records exception, which we will discuss in this post. What is the background? The Bank Secrecy Act regulates offshore banking. […]
Staying abreast of changes in reporting requirements on foreign accounts has been a significant agenda item for anyone who works in the banking field. The signature authority rules have even resulted in overlapping requirements. Proposed regulations would clarify some of the rules for filing Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial […]
For the last few years, more and more U.S. citizens and green card holders have chosen to give up their passports rather than comply with increasingly burdensome offshore account reporting requirements. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), in particular, has become a major burden for many expatriates. We wrote […]
Going through the prompts on Turbo Tax is straightforward until you reach the question about whether you have a foreign bank account. If you answer yes, you need to understand that the failure to disclose could open you to serious civil penalties. You can no longer file the Report of […]
“Follow the money” is a well-worn cliché of political life. Of course, tax collection isn’t supposed to be political. But is the IRS evenhanded when it comes to deciding which tax returns get audited? In this post, we will explore that question. Recent data from the IRS itself suggests that […]
Let’s conclude our two-part post on taxes and the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare). In the first part of this post, we outlined the ways in which you can show the IRS that you are in compliance with the new requirement to have at least “minimal essential” health insurance […]