We are constantly asked what is the likelihood of a return being audited.  The answer is vague, but generally, less than 1% of all returns are audited.  That said, a higher number of international returns are flagged for audit. Reasons for audits include underpayment, higher income and failure to report a foreign bank account. The […]

The IRS Commissioner has indicated that funding cuts have resulted in a loss of over 15,000 IRS employees.  Because of this, audits are down by 22% and a resulting loss in revenue to the government of $4 billion a year between 2011 to present, considerably less than the costs the government has saved in budget […]

On September 18, 2015 the Department of Treasury and the IRS announced the intent to amend regulations relating to FATCA’s withholding rules to extend the following: The date for when withholding on gross proceeds and foreign passthru payments will begin The use of limited branches and limited foreign financial institutions (limited FFIs) The deadline for […]

On April 16th the House of Representatives passed a bill (the Death Tax Repeal Act of 2015) to eliminate the Estate Tax and the Generation Skipping Tax. But don’t hold your breath – it is not clear if or when it will be considered by the Senate, where it does not appear as if there […]

This week, we received an announcement from USA.gov, the US government’s official web portal, announcing scammers using their name.  Please read the letter below: USA.gov will never request your personal information Beware: scammers are using the USA.gov name as part of an e-mail phishing scam to collect your personal information on a fake IRS website. […]

Please note: Some links have been removed as the external source has unpublished. On June 18, the Internal Revenue Service announced new Voluntary Disclosure Procedures which include major changes for taxpayers living both outside and now inside the United States and who have failed to properly report their income and foreign financial accounts. With FATCA […]

As many of you will have read, beginning with the 2013 tax year President Obama and the US Congress have imposed an additional tax on a taxpayer’s “net investment income.”  The tax is an additional 3.8% and will be imposed on your net income from interest, rents, royalties, and capital gains (including the gain from […]