The Ghost of Anna Nicole Smith visited me to discuss a unique tax saving opportunity, which is set to expire at the end of this year. Seriously. You may remember Anna Nicole, the Playmate who parlayed her Playboy fame into a modern tragic-comedy of sorts – if I may say that without offending.  But to […]

As we posted yesterday, the US and UK governments on September 14, 2012, entered into a bilateral agreement to improve international tax compliance, combat tax evasion and to implement FATCA.  In addition to the procedural requirements relating to what both US and UK financial institutions as well as the US and UK governments must to […]

As we posted on  27th June 2012, the IRS has announced a new procedure to “streamline” the process for US taxpayers living overseas to bring their US tax compliance up to date. This took effect on the 1st September 2012. It is available to US taxpayers who have resided outside the US since 2009 and […]

‘Big Data’ is the future. With this digital age of transparency, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. The game-changers – companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook and Linkedin have been masters at taking our own data and giving us very specific and personalized recommendations for products, services, friends, food, business partners, hobbies, investments, […]

As previously discussed, the US has been working with foreign governments to Improve tax compliance, combat offshore tax evasion and help them to meet their obligations under the new Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).  Recently, model intergovernmental agreements have been proposed, with Switzerland and Japan signing FATCA agreements in June. The US and the […]

In the June 2012 issue of The IFA’s WealthGram newsletter, we wrote about the proposed US Treasury Regulations implementing the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). We further discussed a news release concerning an intergovernmental cooperation agreement for the implementation of FATCA. The model intergovernmental agreement (IGA) is referred to as the “Model I framework” […]

Whistleblowers As we have previously discussed, the IRS is aggressively looking for taxpayers who have not complied with their US tax obligations. Increased enforcement, voluntary disclosure programs, and the soon to be implemented FATCA rules, requiring foreign financial institutions to disclose their US customers and investors, are all designed to “find” the more than 6 […]