One of the recurring questions I get is whether going through the amnesty process will cause the IRS to declare open season on all of the prior year tax returns. Will you be audited for all of your completely unrelated income and deductions if you come forward and declare your previously-hidden offshore bank account? No [...]
It’s a giant data sweep. With a defined aim. Unfortunately, the scheme may be turning out badly, if my experience is typical. Here’s the plan: Announce the amnesty. Yell “Scary Monsters!” as loudly and frequently as you can, and get as much press as you can. Taxpayers apply for the amnesty so they can sleep [...]
Up to now the FBAR amnesty processing dance has been: Step 1. Go to your local IRS Criminal Investigations office. Get cleared there. Step 2. Get your file sent to the IRS Philadelphia unit, where most things international seem to happen. This is where your taxes, penalties, and interest would be calculated. I know it [...]
Jack Townsend does a better job at parsing the results than I ever will. Go to Jack’s blog post and read all about it. As Rufus Rhoades tells me every time we have lunch, “It’s only money.” Mr. Get-In-Line-Brother, Jeff Chernick, learns this lesson late in life (at age 70). As the game show used [...]
The IRS process for starting an amnesty application for an offshore bank account has an interesting thing in it. You tell me: sneaky or sloppy? The process up to now The process for an amnesty application up to now has been pretty clean. Start the voluntary disclosure process, go all the way to the end, [...]
