Abusive Tax Shelters on the IRS “Dirty Dozen” List of 2015

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On February 3, 2015, the IRS said using abusive tax shelters and structures to avoid paying taxes continues to be a problem and remains on its annual list of tax scams known as the “Dirty Dozen” for the 2015 filing season.

“The IRS is committed to stopping complex tax avoidance schemes and the people who create and sell them,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. “The vast majority of taxpayers pay their fair share, and we are warning everyone to watch out for people peddling tax shelters that sound too good to be true.”

Compiled annually, the “Dirty Dozen” lists a variety of common scams that taxpayers may encounter anytime but many of these schemes peak during filing season as people prepare their returns or hire people to help with their taxes.

Abusive tax shelters are classified as illegal scams and can lead to significant penalties and interest and possible criminal prosecution. IRS Criminal Investigation works closely with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to shutdown scams and prosecute the criminals behind them.

Abusive Tax Shelters

Abusive tax shelters have evolved from simple structuring of abusive domestic and foreign trust arrangements into sophisticated strategies that take advantage of the financial secrecy laws of some foreign jurisdictions and the availability of credit/debit cards issued from offshore financial institutions.

IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) has developed a nationally coordinated program to combat these abusive tax shelters. CI’s primary focus is on the identification and investigation of the promoters of the abusive tax shelters as well as those who play a substantial or integral role in facilitating, aiding, assisting, or furthering the abusive tax shelters, such as accountants or lawyers. Just as important is the investigation of investors who knowingly participate in abusive tax shelters.

What are these abusive tax shelters? The Abusive Tax Schemes program encompasses violations of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and related statutes where multiple flow-through entities are used as an integral part of the taxpayer’s scheme to evade taxes. These abusive tax shelters are characterized by the use of Limited Liability Companies (LLCs), Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs), International Business Companies (IBCs), foreign financial accounts, offshore credit/debit cards and other similar instruments. The abusive tax shelters are usually complex involving multi-layer transactions for the purpose of concealing the true nature and ownership of the taxable income and/or assets.

Whether something is “too good to be true” is important to consider before buying into any arrangements that promise to “eliminate” or “substantially reduce” your tax liability. If an arrangement uses unnecessary steps or a form that does not match its substance, then that arrangement may be classified as abusive tax shelter. Another thing to remember is that the promoters of abusive tax shelters often employ financial instruments in their schemes; however, the instruments are used for improper purposes including the facilitation of tax evasion.

Abusive Tax Shelters: Misuse of Trusts

Trusts also commonly show up in abusive tax shelters. They are highlighted here because unscrupulous promoters continue to urge taxpayers to transfer large amounts of assets into trusts. These assets include not only cash and investments, but also successful on-going businesses. There are legitimate uses of trusts in tax and estate planning, but the IRS commonly sees highly questionable transactions. These transactions promise reduced taxable income, inflated deductions for personal expenses, reduced (even to zero) self-employment taxes, and reduced estate or gift transfer taxes.

These transactions commonly arise when taxpayers are transferring wealth from one generation to another. Questionable trusts rarely deliver the tax benefits promised and are used primarily as a means of avoiding income tax liability and hiding assets from creditors, including the IRS.

IRS personnel continue to see an increase in the improper use of private annuity trusts and foreign trusts to shift income and deduct personal expenses, as well as to avoid estate transfer taxes. As with other arrangements, taxpayers should seek the advice of a trusted professional before entering a trust arrangement.

Abusive Tax Shelters: Captive Insurance

Another abuse involving a legitimate tax structure involves certain small or “micro” captive insurance companies. Tax law allows businesses to create “captive” insurance companies to enable those businesses to protect against certain risks. The insured claims deductions under the tax code for premiums paid for the insurance policies while the premiums end up with the captive insurance company owned by same owners of the insured or family members.

The captive insurance company, in turn, can elect under a separate section of the tax code to be taxed only on the investment income from the pool of premiums, excluding taxable income of up to $1.2 million per year in net written premiums.

In the abusive tax shelters, unscrupulous promoters persuade closely held entities to participate in this scheme by assisting entities to create captive insurance companies onshore or offshore, drafting organizational documents and preparing initial filings to state insurance authorities and the IRS. The promoters assist with creating and “selling” to the entities oftentimes poorly drafted “insurance” binders and policies to cover ordinary business risks or esoteric, implausible risks for exorbitant “premiums,” while maintaining their economical commercial coverage with traditional insurers.

Total amounts of annual premiums often equal the amount of deductions business entities need to reduce income for the year; or, for a wealthy entity, total premiums amount to $1.2 million annually to take full advantage of the Code provision. Underwriting and actuarial substantiation for the insurance premiums paid are either missing or insufficient. The promoters manage the entities’ captive insurance companies year after year for hefty fees, assisting taxpayers unsophisticated in insurance to continue the charade.

New Convictions for Helping Hide Millions in Israeli Offshore Accounts

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On December 19, 2014, a federal jury sitting in Los Angeles convicted two California tax return preparers of one count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and two counts of willfully failing to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) with respect to secret Israeli Offshore Accounts.

Israeli Offshore Accounts: Facts of the Case

According to the second superseding indictment and evidence introduced at trial, David Kalai and Nadav Kalai were principals of United Revenue Service Inc. (URS), a tax preparation business with 12 offices located throughout the United States. David Kalai worked primarily at URS’s former headquarters in Newport Beach, California, and later at URS’s location in Costa Mesa, California. Nadav Kalai, who is David Kalai’s son, worked out of URS’s headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland, as well as the URS locations in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. David Almog was the branch manager of the New York office of URS and supervised tax return preparers for URS’s East Coast locations.

The second superseding indictment and the evidence introduced at trial established that the co-conspirators prepared false individual income tax returns that did not disclose the clients’ secret Israeli Offshore Accounts nor reported any income earned from these Israeli Offshore Accounts. In order to conceal the clients’ ownership and control of Israeli Offshore Accounts and to conceal the clients’ income from the IRS, the co-conspirators incorporated offshore companies in Belize and elsewhere and helped clients open secret Israeli Offshore Accounts at the Luxembourg locations of two Israeli banks, Bank A and Bank B. Bank A is a large financial institution headquartered in Tel -Aviv, Israel, with branches worldwide. Bank B is a mid-size financial institution, also headquartered in Tel Aviv, with a presence on four continents.

As further proven at trial, the co-conspirators incorporated offshore companies in Belize and elsewhere to act as named account holders on the secret Israeli Offshore Accounts. The co-conspirators then facilitated the transfer of client funds to the secret Israeli Offshore Accounts and prepared and filed tax returns that falsely reported the money sent offshore as a false investment loss or a false business expense. The co-conspirators also failed to disclose the existence of, and the clients’ financial interest in and authority over, the secret Israeli Offshore Accounts and caused the clients to fail to file FBARs with the U.S. Treasury.

The evidence at trial established that David Kalai and Nadav Kalai each failed to file FBARs for calendar years 2008 and 2009 concerning secret Israeli Offshore Accounts. The bank account for Bank A in Luxembourg was held in the name of a nominee corporation in Belize and held over $300,000.

“The Kalais created sham foreign corporate entities and used banks in Luxembourg and Israel as havens for hiding their U.S. clients’ money from the U.S. government,” said Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Wszalek. “Today’s guilty verdict sends a clear message that those professionals who facilitate tax evasion through the use of offshore bank accounts will be held accountable for their criminal conduct. The Tax Division will continue its vigorous tax enforcement efforts in prosecuting return preparers, bankers, and other facilitators who assist clients in concealing assets offshore.”

“As the defendants in this case have learned, hiding income and assets offshore is not tax planning; it’s tax fraud,” said Chief Richard Weber IRS-Criminal Investigation. “There is no secret formula that can eliminate an individual’s tax obligations. Today’s verdict reinforces our commitment to every American taxpayer that we will identify and prosecute those who implement off-shore tax schemes designed to evade the payment of taxes.”

Sentencing of the defendants is scheduled for March 16, 2015.

Israeli Offshore Accounts: Obligation to Report Foreign Accounts and Income Including Israeli Offshore Accounts

U.S. citizens, resident aliens and legal permanent residents have an obligation to report to the IRS on Schedule B of the U.S. Individual Income Tax Return, Form 1040, whether they had a financial interest in, or signature authority over, a financial account in a foreign country in a particular year by checking “yes” or “no” in the appropriate box and identifying the country where the account is maintained. They further have an obligation to report all income earned from the foreign financial account on the tax returns. Separately, U.S. citizens, resident aliens and legal permanent residents with a foreign financial interest in, or signatory authority over, a foreign financial account worth more than $10,000 in a particular year must also file an FBAR with the U.S. Treasury disclosing such an account by June 30th of the following year.

Israeli Offshore Accounts: Lessons from the Kalai Case

The Kalai case is pretty much in line with other similar cases where the IRS was able to obtain criminal conviction for failing to file FBARs to disclose foreign accounts, including secret Israeli Offshore Accounts.

The highly negative factors include: evidence of sophisticated planning to conceal the identify of the secret Israeli Offshore Accounts owners; evidence of international concealment of funds (by reporting them as a business loss) that formed the balances of the secret Israeli Offshore Accounts; evidence of intentional failure to report income from the secret Israeli Offshore Accounts; and the education level of Kalai as tax preparers.

What is critically important for US taxpayers with undisclosed secret Israeli Offshore Accounts to remember is that, if they engaged tax preparers to avoid disclosing their Israeli Offshore Accounts or foreign financial accounts in any other country, they are at an even higher risk of exposure. The reason is because these tax preparers are likely to have engaged in similar pattern of criminal behavior with respect to their other clients; when these other clients do their voluntary disclosure, they are very likely to exposure their tax preparers as well.

This is why it is critically important for US taxpayers with undisclosed secret Israeli Offshore Accounts or foreign financial accounts in any other country to explore their voluntary disclosure options as soon possible and before they are precluded by an IRS investigation.

Contact Sherayzen Law Office for Help with Your Undisclosed Foreign Accounts

If you have undisclosed foreign financial accounts and any other foreign assets, contact Sherayzen Law Office for professional legal and tax help. We will thoroughly analyze your current penalty exposure, identify the offshore voluntary disclosure options available to you, prepare all legal documents and tax forms (including amended tax returns) needed in your case, rigorously defend your interests in front of the IRS, and guide you through the entire voluntary disclosure process.

Contact Us Today to Schedule Your Confidential Consultation!

IRS Criminal Investigation Co-Hosts First International Criminal Tax Symposium

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The Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI) and Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) co-hosted a three-day International Criminal Tax Symposium in Washington, D.C. on January 27 – 29, 2015. The symposium focused on combating offshore tax evasion and international financial crimes. It is worth mentioning that delegates from criminal tax and enforcement programs from Australia, Canada, The Netherlands, Norway and New Zealand also attended the symposium.

IRS states that, recognizing the increasing trends in sophisticated tax evasion and other financial crimes crossing international borders, the symposium participants discussed best practices and methods of effective investigations as well as other strategies to combat emerging issues.

“The IRS continues to enhance its international efforts through a number of strategies working with international law enforcement and actively participating in a number of international financial task force groups. We will continue our recent successes in international cases, following the money across the world to bring criminals to justice,” said Richard Weber, Chief, IRS-Criminal Investigation. “Those who believe they can cross international borders to commit financial crimes will find that they have far fewer places to hide.”

“HMRC is committed to tackling tax crimes through international collaboration and ensuring there is no safe haven for the proceeds of crime,” said Richard Summersgill, Director, HMRC Criminal Investigation. “The world is becoming a much smaller place for those who want to hide themselves and their assets behind anonymous corporate structures.”

Focus of the Symposium

The delegates focused on four key areas: combating beneficial ownerships and the use of shell companies, transnational organized crime, combating offshore tax evasion and refund crimes and repayment fraud.

Combating international financial crimes is a top priority for all of the participating countries and each actively pursues offshore tax evaders, promoters and financial institutions involved in hiding income and assets offshore. Currently, many countries coordinate through international and interagency task forces, exchange of information methods, joint investigations and other formal and informal methods of international cooperation. The IRS affirms that the symposium delegates discussed further enhancements to this international collaboration moving forward.

FATCA and Beneficial Ownership Issue

The beneficial ownership problem is one that is probably most difficult to trace for the IRS at this point, because it may not be as easily detectable through FATCA as, for example, individual or partnership ownership of foreign accounts. Therefore, it is not surprising that the symposium emphasized this aspect of international tax enforcement.

Symposium and Non-Compliant Foreign Accounts

This symposium is one more evidence of an ever closer cooperation between countries in terms tackling international tax enforcement. With FATCA being adopted as the global standard for tax enforcement, US owners of non-compliant foreign accounts are in ever-more present danger of discovery.

If the evidence is found that these owners used foreign entities to conceal their beneficial ownership of the foreign accounts, there is a very high likelihood of the IRS pursuing criminal penalties against non-compliant US taxpayers.

This is why it is so important for non-compliant US taxpayers to consider their voluntary disclosure options before it is too late (if the IRS commences an investigation of these accounts, the voluntary disclosure options may be entirely precluded).

Contact Sherayzen Law Office for Experienced Help with Undisclosed Foreign Accounts and Other Assets

If you are a US person with undisclosed foreign accounts, please contact Sherayzen Law Office to secure professional, experienced and creative legal help. Our experienced law firm will thoroughly analyze your case, discuss with you the available voluntary disclosure options, prepare and file your entire voluntary disclosure case (including all legal documents and tax forms), and negotiate the final settlement with the IRS.

Streamlined Domestic Offshore Compliance Process

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In a previous article, I discussed the eligibility requirement with respect to the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures. In this article, I would like to explore the specific filing requirements under the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures.

As a side note, it is important to emphasize that this is just an educational article on the general overview of technical filing requirements. However, this article does not constitute legal advice and omits some very important complexities that may arise in individual cases. This is why I strongly discourage pro se (i.e. self-representation) disclosures under the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures. On the contrary, the decision to engage in the Streamlined Domestic Offshore option should only be handled by an experienced international tax lawyer.

The Streamlined Domestic offshore filings can be organized in the following seven parts. Note that not all of the discussed requirements may apply in some cases and additional documents may be required in other cases.

1. Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures: U.S. Tax Returns

Very precise instructions were issued by the IRS with respect to filing U.S. tax returns under the Streamlined Domestic Offshore procedures. For each of the most recent 3 years for which the U.S. tax return due date (or properly applied for extended due date) has passed, the taxpayer must submit Form 1040X together with any of the required information returns (e.g., Forms 3520, 3520-A, 5471, 5472, 8938, 926, and 8621).

The taxpayer should include at the top of the first page of each delinquent or amended tax return and at the top of each information return “Streamlined Domestic Offshore” written in red to indicate that the returns are being submitted under these procedures. The IRS warns that this is critical to ensure that the taxpayer’s returns are processed through Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures. My practice is to apply the same stamp to each of the required information returns submitted under the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures, even if these returns are attached to the amended tax returns.

Two important issues must be kept in mind when submitting tax returns under the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures. First, the information returns mentioned above (e.g. Forms 3520, 3520-A, 5471, 5472, 8938, 926, and 8621) should be submitted with the amended U.S. income tax returns even if these information returns would normally not be submitted with the Form 1040 had the taxpayer filed a complete and accurate original return.

Second, the taxpayer may not file delinquent income tax returns (including Form 1040, U.S. Individual Income Tax Return) using Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures. This is one of the most critical differences between the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures and Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures.

2. Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures: Payment of Tax Due

Together with the U.S. tax returns, the taxpayer should submit the payment of all tax due as reflected on the tax returns and all applicable statutory interest with respect to each of the late payment amounts. The taxpayer’s taxpayer identification number must be included on each check. Under the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures, the taxpayer is not required to pay any failure-to-pay penalties and accuracy-related penalties,

3. Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures: FBARs

The Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures follow the FBAR statute of limitations and require the taxpayer to file delinquent FBARs for each of the most recent 6 years for which the FBAR due date has passed. The FBARs should be filed according to the FBAR instructions and they should include a statement explaining that the FBARs are being filed as part of the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures.

All FBARs must be e-filed at FinCen. On the cover page of the electronic form, select “Other” as the reason for filing late. An explanation box will appear. In the explanation box, enter “Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures.” While not required, it may be beneficial to include a more expanded statement to briefly state the circumstances – it is the job of an international tax attorney to critically look at his client’s case and see if this is the right strategy.

4. Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures: Payment of the Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty

In a stark contrast to Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures, the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures option requires the participating taxpayers to pay the Title 26 Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty of 5%. The definition of the Title 26 Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty is beyond the scope of this article; however, you can read this article I posted earlier for a more elaborate discussion of this penalty and how it is calculated.

The check for the payment of the Miscellaneous Offshore penalty should be made payable to the “United States Treasury” and the taxpayer’s taxpayer identification number must be included on the check.

5. Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures: Certification of Non-Willfulness (IRS Form 14654)

This is the most critical part of the voluntary disclosure package under the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures. The taxpayer must complete and sign Form 14654, “Certification by U.S. Person Residing in the United States for Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures”. The taxpayer must submit the original signed Form 14654 to the IRS. Furthermore, he must also attach copies of the statement to each tax return and information return being submitted through Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures.

The IRS warns that failure to submit this statement, or submission of an incomplete or otherwise deficient statement, will result in returns being processed in the normal course without the benefit of the favorable terms of the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures.

At this point, the IRS does not currently require the attachment of copies of Form 14654 to FBARs, but this may change in the future.

6. Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures: Late Deferral Requests

The taxpayer may also use the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures to make retroactive elections requests. If the taxpayer seeks relief for failure to timely elect deferral of income from certain retirement or savings plans where deferral is permitted by an applicable treaty, he should submit the following items as part of his disclosure package under the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures:

a). A statement requesting an extension of time to make an election to defer income tax and identifying the applicable treaty provision;

b). A dated statement signed by you under penalties of perjury describing: (i) the events that led to the failure to make the election; (ii) the events that led to the discovery of the failure, and (iii) if the taxpayer relied on a professional advisor, the nature of the advisor’s engagement and responsibilities; and

c). For relevant Canadian plans, a Form 8891 for each tax year and each plan and a description of the type of plan covered by the submission.

7. Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures: Mailing Address as of January 29, 2015

Once the above-described documents are gathered into one package (together with the payments), this package should be sent in paper format to the following address:

Internal Revenue Service
3651 South I-H 35Stop 6063 AUSC
Attn: Streamlined Domestic Offshore
Austin, TX 78741

This address may only be used for returns filed under Streamlined Offshore Domestic Procedures and may change over time; so an international tax lawyer should verify any changes to the address prior to submission of any documents under the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures.

Contact Sherayzen Law Office for Legal Help with Your Voluntary Disclosure Under Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures

If you have undisclosed foreign financial accounts and other assets, please contact Mr. Eugene Sherayzen an experienced tax attorney, owner of Sherayzen Law Office for legal and tax help. Our experienced international tax firm specializes in offshore voluntary disclosures and we can help you.

Contact Us to Schedule Your Confidential Consultation!

Title 26 Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty under SDOP

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The Title 26 Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty (“Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty”) is one of the most critical aspects of the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures (“SDOP”). In this article, I want to conduct a general overview of how the Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty is calculated.

As a side note, it is important to keep in mind that this is an educational article which aims to provide a general overview of the calculation of the Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty in common situations. In providing this general overview of the SDOP Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty, the article necessarily glosses over some complex issues that may change the determination of Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty in a particular case.  In order to calculate your Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty properly, the readers should contact an experienced international tax attorney for a legal advice based on their specific facts and circumstances.

What is Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty?

A taxpayer who enters SDOP is required to pay a 5% Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty as part of the SDOP requirements. The Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty is paid in lieu of the penalties associated with the delinquent filings of FBARs, Forms 8938 and other information returns.

The calculation of SDOP Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty is very different from 2014 OVDP calculation in terms of the relevant time period and the penalty base. (Note: OVDP is now closed). Let’s explore each of these factors.

Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty: Time Period

Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty is equal to 5 percent of the highest aggregate balance/value of the taxpayer’s foreign financial assets that are subject to the miscellaneous offshore penalty during the years in the covered tax return period and the covered FBAR period. Generally, this means that the Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty is imposed on the past six years covered by the FBAR statute of limitations.

However, there is an exception where the three-year tax covered tax return period does not completely overlap with the six-year covered FBAR period. For example, the SDOP disclosure for tax returns covers years 2012 and 2014 because the due date for the 2014 tax return is passed, but the FBAR period is 2008-2013 because the due date for the 2014 FBAR has not passed. In such cases, the Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty is imposed on the highest aggregate value of the foreign financial assets for the past seven years.

In most cases, six years will be the standard time period for the calculation of the Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty, which is a lot better than the 2014 OVDP eight-year disclosure period.

Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty: Penalty Base

SDOP introduced a new way to calculate Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty which mixed the old FBAR-focused penalty orientation of the 2014 OVDP with the new FATCA-focused Form 8938.

In general, the Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty is imposed on any foreign financial asset in a given year within the covered SDOP time period if one of the following is true:

1. The asset should have been, but was not, reported on an FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) for that year;

2. The asset should have been, but was not, reported on a Form 8938 for that year; or

3. If the asset was properly reported for that year, but gross income in respect of the asset was not reported in that year.

Two important features of this calculation of the penalty base under SDOP must be emphasized. First, the Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty should be calculated not only on the foreign bank and financial accounts listed on the FBAR, but also on “other specified assets” required to be listed on Form 8938. This means that many more assets outside of a foreign financial account can now be subject to the Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty . Examples of such assets include but not limited to: foreign stocks not held in a financial account, a capital or profits interest in a foreign partnership, certain forms of indebtedness issued by a foreign person (such as a note, bond, debenture, an interest in a foreign trust, foreign swaps, foreign options, foreign derivatives and other assets. It should be remembered, though, that this is a generalization and, in certain circumstances, an international tax attorney may except certain such assets from Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty base.

The second critical difference between SDOP Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty and 2014 OVDP Offshore Penalty is the inclusion in the calculation of the penalty base the assets for which no additional income needs to be reported. There are a lot of nuances with respect to the exclusion and inclusion of assets under the 2014 OVDP which are beyond the scope of this article. For the purposes of the present discussion, I will ignore them and concentrate on the general rule only (again, this is an area that should be explored with an international tax attorney based on the specific facts of a client’s case) that if an asset should have been reported on Forms 8938 and FinCEN Form 114 and it was not, then, it should be included in the penalty base.

Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty: Calculation of Highest Aggregate Value of Assets

As it was mentioned above, the Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty is calculated based on the highest aggregate balance/value of the taxpayer’s foreign financial assets that are subject to the miscellaneous offshore penalty during the years in the covered tax return period and the covered FBAR period. The issue is how this “highest aggregate balance/value of assets” is calculated.

For the purposes of SDOP Miscellaneous Offshore Penalty, the highest aggregate balance/value is determined by a two-step process. First, you need to aggregate the year-end account balances and year-end asset values of all the foreign financial assets subject to the miscellaneous offshore penalty for each of the years in the covered tax return period and the covered FBAR period. Then, you select the highest aggregate balance/value from among those years and calculate the 5% value of this balance.

It is the first step that is radically different from the 2014 OVDP Offshore Penalty determination process, and it can produce very interesting results especially in the case of bank accounts. The most surprising result is that an account that was closed in one of the covered years is likely to produce a zero end-of-year balance irrespective of how much money was on it prior to December 31.

This factor can be a very important consideration when one decides to participate in SDOP. For this reason, I highly encourage the readers to consult an experienced international tax lawyer in these matters.

Contact Sherayzen Law Office for Professional Help with Your Undisclosed Foreign Assets

If you have undisclosed foreign accounts and any other assets, contact Sherayzen Law Office for professional legal and tax help. Our team of experienced tax professionals will thoroughly analyze your case, estimate your current penalty exposure, identify the offshore voluntary disclosure options available to you, prepare all legal documents and tax forms (including amended tax returns) needed in your case, rigorously defend your interests in front of the IRS, and guide you through the entire voluntary disclosure process.

Contact Us Today to Schedule Your Confidential Consultation!