Expats may decide to leave the U.S. due to work, retirement, or other reasons. Tax reduction may also be a motivation for moving to a foreign country, but the United States uses citizenship-based taxation. Therefore, the taxpayer still has a continuing obligation to file and pay U.S. taxes (although they…
Dual citizens, along with all other “United States persons”, must file a Report of Foreign Bank Accounts (FBAR) if the aggregate value of their foreign financial accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the year. This requirement applies to U.S. citizens, residents, green card holders, and those who must file…
Any United States person with a financial interest in or signature authority over a foreign financial account, where the aggregate value of all foreign financial accounts exceeds $10,000 at any point during the year, must file a Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR). These terms can be difficult to apply in…
U.S. taxpayers who inherit foreign assets must handle the tax consequences of their inheritances with great care. In addition to taxing all worldwide income, the U.S. also includes foreign assets in the gift and estate tax calculation, which determines whether estate tax will be assessed. Heirs who receive foreign assets…
The IRS has six years from the due date of the FBAR to assess the FBAR penalty. In addition, the IRS can assess a separate penalty for each unreported account for each tax year that an FBAR has not been filed, causing the total amount of penalties to add up…
The IRS imposes severe penalties on taxpayers who fail to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR). Those who are required to file an FBAR and fail to do so can face the following penalties: a civil penalty not to exceed $12,459 per violation for non-willful violations…
A former employee of Credit Suisse bank has pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States. Susanne D. Rüegg Meier admitted to a tax scheme that allowed U.S. taxpayers to hide their assets in Swiss bank accounts. The plea agreement states that Credit Suisse went to great lengths to…
A Beverly Hills resident has been indicted on several charges for failing to disclose foreign accounts and then allegedly lying to the IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) unit. The charges faced by Teymour Khoubian include the following: corruptly endeavoring to impede the internal revenue laws filing false tax returns filing false…
Taxpayers with foreign financial accounts may have several different reporting requirements, depending the type of account and the amount of funds in the accounts. The first of these requirements comes from the 1040 tax return, specifically Schedule B. Schedule B requires the disclosure or any interest or dividends received by…
Taxpayers with funds in offshore accounts may wish to repatriate their funds by bringing them back to the U.S. and avoid any future Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR) compliance issues. While this may prevent any future offshore bank account problems, it does not stop the IRS from discovering any past…