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Form 8938 Does Not Replace FBAR Reporting | FBAR Tax Lawyer & Attorney

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Hello, and welcome to Sherayzen Law Office video Blog. My name is Eugene Sherayzen and I’m an international tax attorney and owner of Sherayzen Law Office, Ltd.

Today, I’d like to talk to you about the situation where an account was disclosed on Form 8938 but it was not disclosed on FBAR or as it’s know by it’s official name, FinCEN Form 114.

Does your disclosure on Form 8938 replace the FBAR nondisclosure? That’s a question I often hear from taxpayers who come to me for help; and the answer is ‘no’. Unfortunately, just because you disclosed an account on Form 8938, that does not in any way eliminate your obligation to report the same account on Form 114 (or FBAR).

Will it help your non-willfulness case? Yes, it will but you still have to file your FBARs. You still have to disclose on your FBARs all of the foreign accounts you are required to disclose, otherwise you are on the hook for the penalties, even if they are not willful-type penalties; they may be non-willful penalties. It will depend on the particular facts and circumstances of your case.

If you would like to know more about your FBAR compliance, you can contact me (952) 500-8159 or you can email me at [email protected].

Thank you for watching, until the next time.

Certification of Non-Willfulness: Required Length | Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures Lawyer

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Hello, and welcome to Sherayzen Law Office video Blog. My name is Eugene Sherayzen and I’m an international tax attorney and owner of Sherayzen Law Office, Ltd.

Today, we’re continuing our series of blogs from Beverly Hills, California. I’d like to go back to the issue that I’ve already touched upon in a previous blog; that is, the certification of non-willfulness. I mentioned and described, to a certain degree the attachment that must go with your Form 14654 or Form 14653: the certification of non-willfulness for SDOP and certification of non-willfulness for SFOP respectively.

What I’d like to talk to you about today is how extensive this attachment needs to be. I’ve seen non-willfulness statements that are only a few pages long or sometimes only a few paragraphs long. Neither will likely prove satisfactory. Maybe, if the case is very simple, sometimes you can fit it into a few pages, though, I doubt it.

In my experience, to properly state the case for non-willfulness and state it to the degree that it would satisfy the IRS; one cannot be stingy with facts and with arguments. The bigger your non-willfulness statement, the more direct, the more forthcoming, the more detailed it is along with the sequence of events that makes logical sense, the better off you are. The stronger your argument of non-willfulness will be, the more likely that looking at a statement like this, the IRS is not going to audit your Offshore Voluntary Disclosure.

That is: a good non-willfulness statement is the key to reducing your potential audit exposure in the Voluntary Disclosure.

If you would like to learn more about SDOP or SFOP, please call me at (952) 500-8159 or you can email me at [email protected].

Thank you for watching, until the next time.

Certification of Non-Willfulness | Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Tax Lawyer & Attorney

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Hello, and welcome to Sherayzen Law Office video Blog. My name is Eugene Sherayzen and I’m an international tax attorney and owner of Sherayzen Law Office, Ltd.

We are continuing our series of vlogs from Beverly Hills, California and today, I’d like to talk to you about probably the most critical document that you need to submit as part of your Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures. Actually, as a matter of fact, it is also the most critical document that you would have to submit as part of your Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures.

This document is the Certification of Non-Willfulness. The Certification of Non-Willfulness, Form 14654, in the case of Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures or Form 14653, in the case of Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures, in of itself is not a complex form. In fact, most of it’s language is already determined by the IRS. All you need to do is input certain numbers/certain amounts; so, that part, while it’s critical to do correctly, is not the most crucial part of your Streamlined Disclosure.
The most crucial part, and something that most people do not realize, is the explanation, the attachment, that has to go with your Form 14654 or Form 14653.

That explanation is a critical part of your Offshore Voluntary Disclosure.

  1. It must state all relevant facts
  2. Describe the circumstances that led to non-compliance
  3. State (and this is the critical part) the legal case that will form the crux of your legal argument for non-willfulness

Proving non-willfulness is critical; if you cannot prove non-willfulness, you cannot do a Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures or a Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures, for that matter.

If you would like to know more about the SDOP process or the process for establishing non-willfulness as part of the SDOP, please call me at (952) 500-8159 or you can email me at [email protected]

Thank you for watching, until the next time.

Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures FBARs | SDOP FBAR Tax Lawyer

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Hello, and welcome to Sherayzen Law Office video Blog. My name is Eugene Sherayzen and I’m an international tax attorney and owner of Sherayzen Law Office, Ltd.

I’m continuing a series of blogs from Beverly Hills, California. Today, I’d like to discuss the FBARs that must be submitted as part of an SDOP disclosure. Now, this is actually pretty normal because the IRS Statute of Limitations is six years, so it is logical that the IRS would require you to submit correct FBARs for the period that encompasses the entire Statue of Limitations for the FBAR.

What is important to emphasize though, is when FBARs are submitted as part of the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures, they have to expressly state so. In other words, FBARs must state, (there’s a special option ‘other’ which you can chose when you file the FBAR) in that section: “This FBAR is filed pursuant to Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures”. Again, to repeat myself, the explanation for each FBAR e-filed as part of the SDOP disclosure, must expressly state: “This FBAR is filed pursuant to Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures”.

Additionally, and this is completely voluntary, but I believe is useful, that it is a good idea to state the most important non-willfulness arguments in the same explanation, when you file your FBARs.

If you would like to learn more about the SDOP process, you can call me at (952) 500-8159 or you can email me at [email protected].

Thank you for watching, until the next time.

International Tax Attorney Beverly Hills LA California | SDOP – Amended Tax Returns

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Hello, and welcome to Sherayzen Law Office video Blog. My name is Eugene Sherayzen and I’m an international tax attorney and owner of Sherayzen Law Office, Ltd.

Today, we are continuing our series of blogs from Beverly Hills and I would like to talk about Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures, in particular, I’d like to talk about the Amended Tax Returns that have to be filed as part of the SDOP process.

You may know as part of the SDOP, that you have to submit amended tax returns for the past three years. The question is: why do you have to amend them? It may seem like an obvious question; but unfortunately, too often, people make mistakes.

Let’s list the three most important things that amended tax returns have to disclose. First of all, they have to disclose correctly, unreported foreign income. Second, they have to disclose unreported foreign assets, on the information returns obviously, such as form 8938, form 8621 and so on and so forth. Finally, the third thing, and a bit of a surprise for many people, the amended tax returns have to disclose US-source income; meaning, that they have to correct the original mistakes that were made by the accountants, tax software or by the taxpayers themselves, on the amended tax returns, as part the SDOP submission.

This is where a lot of people make mistakes, even accountants. Not only is it foreign income tax compliance that has to be reflected, but US tax compliance has to be reflected on the amended tax returns.

If you would like to know more about the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures, you can call me at (952) 500-8159 or you can email me at [email protected].

Thank you for watching, until the next time.