Employers face difficult decisions regarding the hiring and classification of workers. Having to pay employment taxes for employees is only one of many factors involved in these decisions. Other factors include employee preferences (some workers actually prefer the flexibility of contractor status) and the complicated nature of the distinction between […]
The CEO of an Atlanta internet company has pleaded guilty to one count of willfully failing to file an FBAR, related to his concealment of offshore accounts from the U.S. Treasury. As part of his plea agreement, Kaminsky has agreed to pay the IRS a civil FBAR penalty in the […]
The acquittal of the former CEO of Global Wealth Management and Business Banking at UBS AG could affect the handling of more than twenty other cases involving Swiss “enablers,” many of whom are currently fugitives. A US jury rejected charges that Raoul Weil knew UBS bankers had used deception and […]
The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) has not only made it more difficult for U.S. taxpayers to comply with the complicated reporting requirements for offshore accounts. It has also created burdensome new obligations for foreign financial institutions (FFIs) that serve U.S. taxpayers. As we noted last week, the U.S. […]
Last week, hundreds of millions of people around the world revisited the familiar story of the birth of Jesus. As the story goes, it came during a census of the Roman provinces of Judea and Syria that brought a couple named Joseph and Mary to a town called Bethlehem. Amid […]
While it is not very common for parents or grandparents in the US to open bank accounts in the names of young children, it is a common practice in many other countries, where it can be done to avoid inheritance or other taxes. Many people are unaware that children have […]
An offer in compromise (OIC) is a useful option for many people in resolving tax debt. If the IRS accepts your offer, the OIC procedure allows you to settle your debt for less than the full amount you owed. The OIC program keeps changing, however, and it is important to […]
There has always been a gray area between core government functions and the use of private enterprise. With IRS regulation changes allowing private contractors to participate in tax audits, the tension in this gray area has already begun to increase. According to a recent Forbes article, Microsoft has filed an injunction […]
In part one of this post, we outlined efforts by the IRS to crack down on paid tax preparers whom the agency considers incompetent or deceitful. The penalties that the IRS can seek against return preparers are both civil and criminal. But as we noted, the agency’s main enforcement program […]
The sheer complexity of the U.S. tax code causes many taxpayers to seek assistance from a paid tax return preparer. Most preparers do a creditable job. Many do outstanding work. But the IRS has long been concerned about incompetent or untrustworthy preparers. The concern is that such preparers can harm […]