FBAR Filing Deadline – FBAR Attorneys, Lawyers, CPA’s – Expert FBAR Consultants

by Fresh Start Tax | May 22, 2014 | Tax Help

The FBAR must be filed electronically through FinCEN’s Bank Secrecy Act E-Filing System on or before June 30, 2014.

There is no longer a paper filing option.

IRS is now tracking everything.

Every U.S. person that had a financial interest in, or signature or other authority over, a foreign financial account during 2013 must electronically file with the U.S. Treasury Department a Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (“FBAR”), if the aggregate value of such foreign financial account(s) exceeded USD $10,000 at any time during 2013.

This form replaces the U.S. Treasury Form TD F 90-22.1 that was required in years past. If an FBAR for 2013 is required, it must be filed electronically with the Treasury Department on or before June 30, 2014.

This deadline cannot be extended.

In your determination of whether you have an FBAR filing obligation, you should consider the following definitions, which apply to both individuals and entities for FBAR purposes:

A “U.S. person” means any:

1. U.S. citizen or resident (including resident aliens),

2. entity (including, but not limited to, a corporation, partnership or limited liability company) created or organized in the United States, and

3.trust or estate formed under the laws of the United States. Entities and trusts that are disregarded for federal income tax purposes are not disregarded for FBAR purposes and, therefore, may be required to file an FBAR.

Financial Accounts

A “financial account” generally includes any savings deposit, demand deposit, checking, securities, security derivatives, debit card, prepaid credit card, and any other financial instrument account, including certain insurance or annuity policies and pension funds.

An account with a mutual fund or similar pooled fund which issues shares available to the general public that have a regular net asset value determination and regular redemption’s is a financial account.

However, an equity interest in a hedge fund, private equity fund or other private investment fund is not currently considered to be a financial account.

If you are not sure that this applies to you can contact us for free initial tax consultation

Foreign Financial Account

Only “foreign financial accounts” are reportable on the FBAR.

A foreign financial account is a financial account that is maintained outside the United States.

For this purpose, the United States includes the states, the District of Columbia, territories and possessions of the United States, and certain American Indian lands.

An account maintained with a foreign branch of a U.S. financial institution is a foreign financial account for FBAR purposes. In contrast, an account maintained with a U.S. branch of a foreign financial institution is not a foreign financial account for FBAR purposes.

Financial Interests

A U.S. person has a “financial interest” in every financial account for which such U.S. person is the owner of record or holds legal title, regardless of whether the account is for such U.S. person’s benefit or for the benefit of another.

In addition, a U.S. person is required to file FBARs with respect to foreign financial accounts owned by entities if such U.S. person has, directly or indirectly,:

(a) in the case of a corporation, more than 50% of the voting power or the total value of the shares of such corporation;

(b) in the case of a partnership, a more than 50% interest in the profits or capital of such partnership; or

(c) in the case of other types of entities, more than 50% of the voting power or the total value of the equity or assets, or a more than 50% interest in the profits of, such other entities.

Similarly, if a U.S. person holds a present beneficial interest in more than 50% of the current income or assets of a trust that holds a foreign financial account, such U.S. person is required to file an FBAR with respect to the foreign financial accounts of the trust, unless the trust, trustee or agent of the trust is a U.S. person and files an FBAR disclosing the trust’s foreign financial accounts.

A U.S. person with a remainder interest in a trust is not within the scope of the FBAR.

Signature or Other Authority

“Signature or other authority” is the authority of an individual (alone or in conjunction with another individual) to control the disposition of assets held in a foreign financial account by direct communication (whether in writing or otherwise) to the financial institution that maintains the foreign financial account.

If an FBAR is required, the following generally describes the procedural requirements and the consequences of non-compliance:

The spouse of an individual who files an FBAR is not required to file a separate FBAR if all the financial accounts that the non-filing spouse is required to report are jointly owned with the filing spouse and the filing spouse reports the jointly owned accounts on his or her FBAR. If jointly filing, both parties should complete and sign FinCEN Form 114a, Record of Authorization to Electronically File FBARs, which allows only one spouse to electronically sign a single FBAR for both parties.

This form is kept for the taxpayers’ records and is not sent to FinCEN.

If spouses file separately, then each spouse must report the entire value of the jointly owned accounts on his or her FBAR.

Penalties for Non-Compliance

Failure to timely and properly file an FBAR may expose a taxpayer to a civil penalty of up to USD $10,000.

Willful violations of FBAR filing obligations may expose a taxpayer to an increased civil penalty of up to the greater of USD $100,000 or 50% of the aggregate value of the taxpayer’s foreign financial accounts at the time of the violation.

In addition, willful violations may be subject to criminal penalties.

Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program

A U.S. person who has failed to timely or properly file an FBAR in the past may be able to correct such failure and mitigate or eliminate any applicable penalties through special programs currently administered by the Treasury Department.

Trust Fund Penalty – Affordable – Tax Defense, Former IRS Agents and Managers – IRC 6672 Penalty

by Fresh Start Tax | May 21, 2014 | Tax Help

Affordable Expert Tax Defense for any IRS problem.

If the Internal Revenue Service is trying to set up the IRC 6672, trust fund penalty against you, there are a variety of tax defenses depending on your situation that you currently have.

Being a former IRS agent and tax instructor I have set up hundreds upon hundreds of trust fund penalties upon responsible persons  when I worked at the Internal Revenue Service as a former revenue officer.

As a result, I know all the best possible tax defenses possible.

Call me today for a free initial tax consultation and I will review your case and let you know what your best possible tax defense against the trust fund penalty.

Each situation is different and I will need to have the fact pattern on your case to give you an honest and free evaluation.

What is the Employment Taxes and the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty (TFRP)

To encourage prompt payment of withheld income and employment taxes, including social security taxes, railroad retirement taxes, or collected excise taxes, Congress passed a law that provides for the TFRP.

Trust Fund Taxes – These taxes are called trust fund taxes because you actually hold the employee’s money in trust until you make a federal tax deposit in that amount.

The TFRP may apply to you if these unpaid trust fund taxes cannot be immediately collected from the business.

The business does not have to have stopped operating in order for the TFRP to be assessed.It can happen at any time trust fund monies are owed to the IRS.

Who Can Be Responsible for the TFRP

The TFRP may be assessed against any person(s) who:

Is responsible for collecting or paying withheld income and employment taxes, or for paying collected excise taxes, and

Willfully fails to collect or pay them.

A responsible person is a person or group of people who has the duty to perform and the power to direct the collecting, accounting, and paying of trust fund taxes.

This person may be:

• An officer or an employee of a corporation,

• A member or employee of a partnership,

• A corporate director or shareholder,

• A member of a board of trustees of a nonprofit organization,

• Another person with authority and control over funds to direct their disbursement,

• Another corporation or third party payer,

• Payroll Service Providers (PSP) ore responsible parties within a PSP

• Professional Employer Organizations (PEO) or responsible parties within a PEO, or

• Responsible parties within the common law employer (client of PSP/PEO).

For willfulness to exist, the responsible person:

Must have been, or should have been, aware of the outstanding taxes and
Either intentionally disregarded the law or was plainly indifferent to its requirements (no evil intent or bad motive is required).

Using available funds to pay other creditors when the business is unable to pay the employment taxes is an indication of willfulness.

You may be asked to complete an interview in order to determine the full scope of your duties and responsibilities.

Responsibility is based on whether an individual exercised independent judgment with respect to the financial affairs of the business.

An employee is not a responsible person if the employee’s function was solely to pay the bills as directed by a superior, rather than to determine which creditors would or would not be paid.

Figuring the TFRP Amount – there is only one formula.

The amount of the penalty is equal to the unpaid balance of the trust fund tax. The penalty is computed based on:

• The unpaid income taxes withheld, plus

• The employee’s portion of the withheld FICA taxes

For collected taxes, the penalty is based on the unpaid amount of collected excise taxes.

Assessing the TFRP

If we determine that you are a responsible person, we will provide you a letter stating that we plan to assess the TFRP against you.

You have 60 days (75 days if this letter is addressed to you outside the United States) from the date of this letter to appeal our proposal.

The letter will explain your appeal rights. Refer to Publication 5, Your Appeal Rights and How to Prepare a Protest if You Don’t Agree (PDF), for a clear outline of the appeals process.

If you do not respond to our letter, we will assess the penalty against you and send you a Notice and Demand for Payment.

Caution:
Once the IRS asserts the trust fund penalty, IRS can take collection action against your personal assets. For instance, we can file a federal tax lien or take levy or seizure action.

Call us today for free initial tax consultation and we can provide your best possible tax defense the trust fund recovery penalty.

Levy, IRS Help – Tax Debt Relief, Settlements – Affordable Former IRS – Kingsport, Collierville, Cleveland

by Fresh Start Tax | May 21, 2014 | Tax Help

Former IRS agents and Managers know the system.

We can get your levy released in 24 hours of having your current financial statement, it is that easy.

We have a combinded 60 years of combined IRS work experience in Local, district, and regional tax offices of the Internal Revenue Service.

We can give you immediate IRS Tax Help.

IRS Levy Facts

The Internal Revenue Service sends out close to 2 million tax levies each and every year and approximately 900,000 federal tax liens.

If you are the recipient of an IRS tax Levy call us today and as a general rule within 24 hours a receiving your documented financial statement we can get a full release of an IRS bank or wage garnishment tax levy.

How we get your IRS Bank, Wage Garnishment Levy Released

After a series of notices that the Internal Revenue Service sends out to taxpayers, IRS will send out a IRS bank or wage garnishment if the last and final IRS notices not responded to. Your 1058 notice is your final and last notice.

After the final notice, IRS simply checks their computer system and find out what streams or sources of income that you have had over the last seven years and their computer, CADE2 systematically sends out levies, and not a human hand will touch them.

To get your tax levy released IRS will require a verifiable financial statement on form 433-F.

You can find that form that form on our website.

Included with your financial statement IRS will ask for the last three months of bank statements, pay stubs and a copy of all monthly expenses.

You want to make sure that your financial statement is accurate and that’s why it is very important to have a tax professional review your current financial statement.

After IRS reviews your financial statement they will close your case off the enforcement computer based on your current financial information and at that point they will release your levy and issue a IRS bank or wage garnishment release.

IRS will either place your place into a currently not collectible status or ask you to make a monthly payment. IRS may also recommend you file an offer compromise because you meet the requirements.

Call us today for free initial tax consultation.

Some Areas of Professional Tax Representation

• On staff, Board Certified Tax Attorney’s, IRS Tax Lawyers, Certified Public Accountants, Enrolled Agents,
• Full Service Accounting Tax Firm,
• We taught Tax Law in the IRS Regional Training Center
• Former IRS Agents, Managers and Instructors with over 60 years experience in the local, district and regional IRS offices.
• Highest Rating by the Better Business Bureau  “A” Plus
• Fast, affordable, and economical
• Licensed and certified to practice in all 50 States
• Nationally Recognized Veteran /Published  Former IRS Agent
• Nationally Recognized Published EZINE Tax Expert
• As heard on GRACE Net Radio.com – Monthly Radio Show-Business Weekly

Levy, IRS Help – Tax Debt Relief, Settlements – Affordable Former IRS – Kingsport, Collierville, Cleveland

IRS Taxes – Levy, Settle, Debt Relief, File Back Tax Returns *Affordable* Kingsport, Collierville, Cleveland

by Fresh Start Tax | May 21, 2014 | Tax Help

Have Former IRS agents and managers with over 60 years of direct IRS experience completely resolve your IRS taxes problem.

Since 1982, A plus Rated by the Better Business Bureau.

Call us today for a free initial tax consultation and we can help resolve any IRS problem you have.

If you have an IRS tax Levy we can release your IRS Tax Levy  within 24 hours after receiving your fully documented financial statement.

If you need to file back tax returns  and have no or few tax records we can easily reconstruct your tax returns and settle your case with Internal Revenue Service.

We’ve been in practice since 1982 and are A+ rated by the Better Business Bureau.

I would caution all people searching the Internet for tax help to make sure you are calling a professional tax firm and not an advertising or marketing agency.

Over 90% of the advertising done on the Internet in the tax resolution space is  done by professional firms.

If you owe back taxes, there are several IRS tax relief programs to help, including the agency’s Fresh Start initiative:

An Installment Agreement.

is generally available to people who can’t pay their tax debt in full at one time. The program allows people to make smaller monthly payments until the entire debt is satisfied.

Under its Fresh Start initiative, the IRS raised the threshold for streamlined installment agreements from $25,000 to $50,000 in tax debt, and the maximum repayment term from five to six years.

An Offer in Compromise/Debt Settlement Relief

(OIC) lets taxpayers permanently settle their tax debt for less than the amount they owe. The OIC is an important tool to help people in limited circumstances; taxpayers are eligible only after other payment options have been exhausted.

Under its Fresh Start initiative, the IRS expanded the OIC program to cover a larger group of struggling taxpayers.

However, the IRS will not accept an offer if it believes the liability can be paid in full as a lump sum or through an installment agreement.

IRS Taxes – Levy, Settle, Debt Relief, File Back Tax Returns *Affordable*  Kingsport, Collierville, Cleveland