The Internal Revenue Service, which has seen its operating budget slashed over the past eight years, may be looking to increase its use of penalties against those who fail to file documents or pay the taxes they owe on time. The IRS is increasingly making use of its legislative rights to impose penalties on late filing, […]

The Swiss employee pension plan (known as the 2nd pillar pension), is, from a US tax perspective, a funded non-qualified foreign pension plan.  As such, contributions employees make to the plan are non-deductible from a US perspective and the company contributions to employee plans are considered taxable wages. We include the growth in the plan as […]

Update: Since this blog was posted, the IRS issued proposed regulations, on March 3, 2019, that clarifies that the 50 percent deduction discussed in item 5 will be available to individual shareholders who elect to be taxed as a corporation.   Last year we provided an early update that all US shareholders of Controlled Foreign Corporations (CFC) […]

For this year’s dates, please refer to 2020 US Tax Deadlines – 2019 tax year. Below is a list of 2019 US tax deadlines to note for 2018 tax returns. January 17, 2019 Deadline for Individuals to pay Quarter 4 of their 2018 Estimated Income Tax payment. If you have income that does not have […]

This is a brief summary of some 2018 US tax return changes that may affect your tax return. Standard Deduction Under the new law, the standard deduction for all taxpayers has increased from 1 January 2018. This is intended to significantly reduce the number of taxpayers who itemize their deductions. Itemised Deduction State & Local taxes […]

Many people have assets in the US, but if you are not a US citizen or tax resident (domiciled) of the United States you will want to understand how your US assets will be taxed once you pass away. Under the current law, “non-domiciled aliens” who own or have an interest in US situated assets […]

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provides US persons certain beneficial estate planning opportunities. Below are a few highlights of the Act that impact estate planning. Estate Tax For any US individual dying after December 31, 2017, the Act increases the federal estate tax exemption amount to $11.18 million (from $5.49 million in 2017). The […]