Bank Leumi’s Problems Growing Worse By The Day
Did Bank Leumi Le-Israel (LUMI) help Americans evade taxes? According to Benjamin Lawsky, head of New York’s Department of Financial Services, it did. New York’s banking regulator is asking for more than $300 million to settle an investigation. Bank Leumi’s breach of New York’s banking laws is eerily reminiscent of an earlier brush that the […]
Ex-Seyfarth Shaw Attorney Case: The Latest in a Series of Department of Justice Prosecutions For Tax Shelter Fraud
Recently, tax shelters have become the target of much prosecution by the Department of Justice. In the largest criminal tax case ever filed, professional services company KMPG LLP admitted to engaging in fraud and generating at least $11 billion dollars in false tax losses. The multi-billion dollar criminal tax fraud conspiracy involved the elaborate design, […]
Weil Case: What Was The Swiss Role?
If you poke about under rocks for long enough, you’d better be prepared to find something unpleasant. That’s what the US government is realizing as the Raoul Weil case finally goes to court. Weil, 54, is accused of helping US citizens avoid taxes while working as head of Global Wealth Management at Switzerland’s UBS – […]
Playing Russian Roulette with the IRS: Zwerner Learns The Cost of Hidden Offshore Accounts
Whether you have chosen to hide your account willingly or failed to file an FBAR by mistake, you may not know the full ramifications of your activities or your best course of action now. If you haven’t heard the horror stories yet, you’re about to have a couple to remember. For those who have kept […]
Making Sense of the FBAR Penalty Mitigation Guidelines: Four Easy Steps For Knocking The FBAR Calculation Out of the Park
This blog is intended for the taxpayer who plans on making a “quiet disclosure” of his unreported foreign financial assets and finds it necessary to estimate his FBAR liability in case of a doomsday scenario. By “doomsday scenario,” I’m referring to a situation where the IRS selects one or more years for examination, culminating in […]
Deutsche Bank Becomes Latest Bank to Cooperate With DOJ In Its Swiss Tax Evasion Probe
A day doesn’t go by without a new development regarding FATCA. Friday, October 10, 2014 was no exception. That day, in an article entitled, “Deutsche Bank to Aid U.S. Justice Department in Swiss Tax Evasion Probe,” The Wall Street Journal reported that Deutsche Bank was cooperating with the U.S. Justice Department to turn over the […]
Virtual Currencies: The Modern-day Equivalent of Your Father’s Offshore Bank Account?
In this high tech era of GPS trackers and unmanned drones, new concerns are emerging over the erosion of personal privacy space. A new federal law compels the Federal Aviation Administration to allow drones to be used for all sorts of commercial endeavors – from selling real estate to monitoring oil spills. That same law […]
Barcelona Star Lionel Messi In A Hot Mess: Set To Face Tax Evasion Trial
A Spanish judge ruled that Barcelona and Argentina star Lionel Messi is to face trial on allegations of tax evasion. The judge rejected the prosecutor’s recommendation to drop the charges on the grounds that Lionel’s father was responsible for his finances. Messi and his father, Jorge, are accused of defrauding authorities of more than 4m […]
FATCA’s October 1st Numbers: Healthy or Dysmal?
Dean Byrnes recently published his monthly update on FATCA registrations in a blog entitled, “Is FATCA Failing? What do the October 1st numbers say?” Dean Byrnes breaks it all down and analyzes the statistics in a way that only he can. What you are about to read might surprise you.
Why Are Banks Saying Sayonara to U.S. Expats?
Fidelity Investments appears to be the latest unintended consequence of the United States’ stepped-up efforts to collect taxes from its citizens and residents regardless of where they live and earn their money. Last July, Fidelity decided to bar its U.S. clients living abroad from buying or trading its mutual funds. Ironically, even though it has […]