eBook | Foreign Asset Reporting: Navigating the Choppy Financial Seas.

Real Housewives Stars Sentenced to Prison

For reality TV stars Joe and Teresa Giudice, a very different kind of reality awaits them. For years, the stars of New Jersey’s most popular reality TV show enjoyed celebrity-status, celebrating lavishness and self-indulgence before a national audience. Now, in an epoch fall from grace, they face the reality of a cold, dank prison cell. […]

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 […]

T-Minus Two Days And Counting

Taxpayers who are considering applying to the OVDP should be mindful of a certain upcoming deadline: August 3, 2014. Willful non-disclosers who do not apply to the OVDP by August 3, 2014 and who have an offshore bank account with a foreign financial institution which has been publicly identified as being under investigation, or is […]

HSBC India Client Convicted of Hiding Offshore Accounts From IRS

Ashvin Desai, an offshore account taxpayer, was previously convicted for concealing more than $ 8 million in foreign bank accounts. Last week, he was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Edward J. Davila to six months in prison and six months and one day of home confinement. Desai was a medical device manufacturer who failed to […]

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the FATCA

If “FATCA” were a person and decided to enter a beauty pageant, it would be booed off the stage for being unsightly. If “FATCA” were a writer and decided to write a nonfiction book, it sure as heck wouldn’t be, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” What is it about this petulant law that […]

OVDP or Streamlined: What Is My Best (Or Only) Option?

Recently, the IRS announced Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures in order to encourage U.S. taxpayers to come into compliance with reporting their offshore financial accounts and assets. For eligible U.S. taxpayers residing outside the United States, all penalties are waived under the streamlined procedures. For eligible U.S. taxpayers residing within the United States, the only penalty […]

Getting to Know the Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures

U.S. taxpayers seeking to use the streamlined foreign offshore procedures must satisfy the following requirements: The applicable non-residency requirement (for joint return filers, both spouses must satisfy the non-residency requirement); and Have failed to file an FBAR with respect to a foreign financial account; and The failure to file an FBAR must have resulted from […]