international tax lawyers

Voluntary Compliance with US Tax Laws | International Tax Attorney Austin

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The IRS has repeatedly stated that the US tax system is a voluntary compliance system. Yet, what does “voluntary compliance” mean in this context? Does it mean that US taxpayers only need to comply with US tax laws whenever they wish to do it? Does it mean that any US taxpayer has a right to refuse to comply with US tax laws or file his tax returns whenever he feels like doing it?

A lot of people tried to take this position and failed. The IRS has always won on the issue that US taxpayers have an obligation to comply with US tax laws, whether they want to do it or not.

Then, what is so “voluntary” about our tax system? Let’s explore this question in more detail.

Voluntary Compliance with US Tax Laws is Obligatory

Let us start with the affirmative statement that the word “voluntary” does not refer to the actual obligation of US taxpayers to comply with US tax laws. In other words, the compliance with US tax laws is compulsory and any noncompliance with US tax laws is punishable to the extent permitted by the law. Intentional noncompliance may even result in incarceration of a noncompliant taxpayer.

The IRS Inability to Engage in Full Enforced Tax Compliance

Since the word “voluntary” does not apply to the actual obligation to comply with US tax laws, we must look at the assessment of US tax liability to understand what voluntary compliance means. In particular, our focus should be on what is known as “enforced tax compliance” – i.e. direct assessment of tax liability and the audit of tax returns.

Here, we encounter an obvious yet interesting fact: the IRS does not have the resources to audit every one of the hundreds of millions of US taxpayers (resident and non-resident, individual and business), especially on an annual basis. Similarly, the IRS also lacks the ability to audit every single tax return every year; in fact, it only audits about 3% of all tax returns per year.

This means that the IRS does not have the capacity to sustain a system of enforced tax compliance and the vast majority of US taxpayers operate outside of this system.

The Definition of Voluntary Compliance

This lack of the IRS ability to engage in 100% enforced tax compliance leads to the inevitable conclusion that it has to rely on US taxpayers to timely file their own tax returns, assess their own tax liability and pay this tax liability to the IRS. It is precisely in this sense that US tax compliance system is “voluntary”.

In other words, voluntary compliance means that US taxpayers do their own self-assessment of their US tax liability (hopefully, in accordance with the IRS guidance) instead of the IRS doing it for each of them. Underlying this voluntary compliance, however, is the threat that the IRS can audit the tax returns and impose noncompliance penalties.

Contact Sherayzen Law Office for Professional Help with Your Voluntary Compliance Concerning US International Tax Laws

The IRS focus on the enforced tax compliance regarding the US international tax obligations of US taxpayers has caused an unprecedented rise in the voluntary compliance in this area of law. Noncompliant US taxpayers are at a historically-high risk of detection by the IRS and may face draconian IRS penalties, including jail time.

This means that, if you have foreign assets and foreign income, you need the professional help of Sherayzen Law Office to bring your tax affairs into full compliance with US tax laws. Our firm is highly experienced in the area of US international tax compliance with hundreds of successful cases closed and millions of dollars saved in US taxes and potential penalties! We can help you!

Contact Us Today to Schedule Your Confidential Consultation!

Happy New Year 2017! | International Tax Attorney Minneapolis

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Sherayzen Law Office, PLLC wishes a very Happy New Year 2017 to all of our clients and readers of our blog! We wish you great health, happiness and prosperity in this New Year 2017! And, to stay in full compliance with US tax laws!

Twin Cities international tax lawyer

The New Year 2017 is going to be a complicated one when it comes to international tax compliance. Let us focus today on two primary updates.

The first notable novelty of the New Year 2017 is the shift in the FBAR deadline; from now on, the FBAR is going to be due on April 15. At this point, the IRS guidance is that this deadline is set for April 15 irrespective of whether it falls on a Saturday, Sunday or a holiday. Hence, it is important to remember that the 2016 FBAR will be due on April 15, 2017, even though US tax returns will be due on April 18, 2017. Please, look for additional articles on this issue in January of 2017.

Second, for the first time ever, FATCA Form 8938 will apply to domestic corporations, partnerships and trusts that hold specified foreign financial assets if the total value of those assets exceeds $50,000 on the last day of the tax year or $75,000 at any time during the tax year. The IRS has been threatening this expansion of the application of Form 8938 since 2011. Now, in the New Year 2017, US domestic entities will need to comply with these new requirements on their 2016 US tax returns. Sherayzen Law Office will be providing additional updates on this issue throughout this year’s tax season.

There are many New Year 2017 updates made to various forms by the IRS. Some of these updates are fairly specific to certain classes of taxpayers, whereas other updates are more general in nature. Our professional legal and tax team at Sherayzen Law Office closely follows these IRS updates and developments to make sure that we provide our clients with the highest quality of service.

As in prior years, if you are a client of Sherayzen Law Office in this New Year 2017, you can rest assured that your US tax compliance is in good hands and you have an intelligent advocate of your interests on your side.

Hence, enjoy the New Year 2017 celebrations and contact Sherayzen Law Office during this year’s tax season for the high-quality professional legal and tax help!

Latvian Micro-Enterprise Tax Law Update | International Tax Lawyer Cleveland

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On December 20, 2016, the Saeima (Latvian Parliament) approved new amendments to Latvian Micro-Enterprise tax law. While the modifications to the law represented a compromise solution, the overall tax rate went up.

History of Latvian Micro-Enterprise Tax Law

The Latvian Micro-Enterprise Tax Law first entered into force on September 1, 2010. It primary purpose was to establish a lower tax rate for very small businesses, which were defined as businesses with turnover not exceeded 100,000 euros per calendar year. If a business qualified as a small business, under the Latvian Micro-Enterprise Tax Law, it would pay only a 9% tax rate. This rate was included in everything – corporate income tax, social tax and personal income tax.

Changes to Latvian Micro-Enterprise Tax Law

The December 20 changes came after an intense dispute over the best approach to the small business tax. In fact, on November 23, 2016, the Saeima first approved amendments to the law that would lower the income tax to a mere 5%, but the small business owners would have been forced to withhold social insurance contributions from each employee.

In the end, the November 23 amendments were discarded. The December 20 version of the law simply increased the micro-enterprise tax rate to 15% and eliminated the November 23 social insurance contribution withholding requirement due to the fact that it would have been excessively burdensome for small businesses.

It is important to point out, however, that the new changes to the Latvian Micro-Enterprise Tax Law carved-out a limited one-year exception for businesses with a turnover of only 7,000 euros per year; these businesses will only pay a 12% tax rate. This reduced tax rate will only be in effect through December 31, 2017

Furthermore, the Saeima also repealed the November 23 amendment that would have terminated the Latvian Micro-Enterprise Tax Law on December 31, 2018. Instead, the Saeima asked the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers to submit the draft new tax law for small businesses.

Latvia Remains One of the Lowest Tax Jurisdictions in the European Union

Even with the recent changes to Latvian Micro-Enterprise Tax Law, Latvia remains a jurisdiction with one of the lowest tax burdens in the European Union. This fact is often not appreciated by the West European tax professionals, often due to their cultural prejudice against doing business in Eastern Europe. This omission in Latvia may be a serious mistake on their part, depending on the client’s situation.

Sherayzen Law Office follows the development of tax laws in Latvia and believes that there are situations where these laws can offer significant advantages to the firm’s clients for tax planning purposes.

Ordinary Business Care and Prudence Standard | International Tax Lawyer

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Ordinary Business Care and Prudence Standard is a requirement that is present, explicitly or implicitly, in all reasonable cause defenses. In this article, I would like to explain what Ordinary Business Care and Prudence Standard means and what are the main factors for analyzing whether a taxpayer met the burden of proof required under the Ordinary Business Care and Prudence Standard.

Ordinary Business Care and Prudence Standard: General Requirements

The ordinary business care and prudence standard is an objective standard. There is no precise definition of this standard, because its application is fact-dependent. Nevertheless, the standard is generally satisfied as long as the taxpayer acted prudently, reasonably and in good faith (taking that degree of care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise) and still could not comply with the relevant tax requirement. IRM 20.1.1.3.2.2 (02-22-2008) adds that “ordinary business care and prudence includes making provisions for business obligations to be met when reasonably foreseeable events occur”.

Ordinary Business Care and Prudence Standard: Common Factors

While the determination under the ordinary business care and prudence standard is highly fact-dependent, there are certain common factors that the IRS will take into account. IRM 20.1.1.3.2.2 (02-22-2008) specifically lists four factors that must be reviewed by the IRS, but states that all available information should be considered. Let’s explore these common factors:

1. Compliance History

The main issue here is to see if this is the first failure to comply with US tax laws by the taxpayer or whether he already violated in the past the tax law provision in question IRM 20.1.1.3.2.2 (02-22-2008) states that “the same penalty, previously assessed or abated, may indicate that the taxpayer is not exercising ordinary business care”. The IRM urges the IRS agents to check at least three preceding tax years for payment patterns and the taxpayer’s overall compliance history.

If the violation was the first time a taxpayer exhibited noncompliant behavior, this will be a positive factor that will be considered with other reasons the taxpayer provided for reasonable cause. While a first-time noncompliance does not by itself establish reasonable cause, taxpayers who violated the same provision more than once will find it more difficult to establish that their behavior satisfied the ordinary business care and prudence standard.

2. Length of Time

At issue here is the time between the event cited as the reason for the initial tax noncompliance and subsequent compliance actions. IRM 20.1.1.3.2.2 (02-22-2008) requires the IRS agents to consider: “(1) when the act was required by law, (2) the period of time during which the taxpayer was unable to comply with the law due to circumstances beyond the taxpayer’s control, and (3) when the taxpayer complied with the law.”

Obviously, if the taxpayer did not discover his noncompliance until one year later and immediately tried to remedy the situation, it will add significant force to his argument that his behavior satisfied the ordinary business care and prudence standard. On the other hand, an unexplained delay between the time the taxpayer discovered his noncompliance and the time he attempted to remedy it will have a negative impact on the overall taxpayer’s argument.

Another highly important factor that plays a crucial role in offshore voluntary disclosures is whether, after discovering his prior noncompliance, the taxpayer voluntarily complied prior to being contacted by the IRS. In a voluntary disclosure context, if the IRS initiates an examination and contacts the taxpayer first, his voluntary disclosure options may be entirely foreclosed. On the other hand, the fact that a taxpayer voluntarily contacted the IRS with his amended tax return that corrected his prior tax noncompliance may play a highly positive role in convincing the IRS that the taxpayer’s prior behavior was consistent with the ordinary business care and prudence standard.

Hence, it is highly important for the taxpayer to explain what happened during the time between his prior noncompliance and his current effort to remedy the situation.

3. Circumstances Beyond the Taxpayer’s Control

The crucial issue here is whether the taxpayer could have anticipated the event that caused the noncompliance. If he could have done it, then his case might be materially weakened. On the other hand, if the taxpayer could not have anticipated the event, then, it might play a very important role in convincing the IRS that his behavior satisfied the ordinary business care and prudence standard.

A lot of sub-factors play a very important role here: the taxpayer’s education, his tax advisors, whether he has been previously subjected to the tax at issue, whether he has filed the tax forms in question before, whether there were any changes to the tax forms or tax law (which the taxpayer could not reasonably be expected to know), and so on. The level of complexity of the issue in question is also an important additional sub-factor.

The “circumstances beyond control” factor is necessarily tied to the “length of time” factor described above, because a taxpayer’s obligation to meet the tax law requirements is ongoing. Ordinary business care and prudence standard generally requires that the taxpayer continue to meet the requirements, even if is he late.

4. Taxpayer’s Reason for Prior Noncompliance

The taxpayer must provide and the IRS agent must consider an actual reason for the prior tax noncompliance whatever it may be and this reason must address the specific penalty imposed. It is the combination of this taxpayer’s reason together with other factors, including the common factors described above, that will form the basis for the taxpayer’s argument that his behavior satisfied the ordinary business care and prudence standard.

Contact Sherayzen Law Office to Contest IRS Penalties based on Reasonable Cause and Ordinary Business Care and Prudence Standard

Since 2005, Sherayzen Law Office has saved its clients millions of dollars in potential IRS penalties. If you wish to challenge the imposition of IRS penalties on your prior US domestic and/or international tax noncompliance, contact Sherayzen Law Office for professional help. We will thoroughly review the facts of your case, determine the available defense strategies to reduce or eliminate IRS penalties (including the determination of whether your case satisfied the ordinary business care and prudence standard), implement these strategies and defend your case against the IRS.

Contact Us Today to Schedule Your Confidential Consultation!

International Business Transactions | Business Tax Lawyer Minneapolis

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Despite their apparent diversity and complexity, international business transactions can be grouped into three categories: export of goods and services, licensing and technology transfer and foreign investment transactions.

International Business Transactions: Export of Goods and Services

The first category of international business transactions consists of exports involving a sale of a commodity, manufactured goods or services to a purchaser in a foreign country. Such exports may be done pursuant to a single or series of contracts (first type of export of goods and services) or under a more permanent arrangement (second type of export of goods and services), such as: branch office, sales subsidiary, designated foreign representative, distributor, et cetera.

The first type of exports of goods and services are usually “arms length transactions” whereas the second type often involves related-party transactions. The latter sub-type may often draw the attention of the IRS due to high potential of abuse through tax avoidance measures as well as transfer pricing.

In addition to import tax considerations, exporting goods and services also entails a number of legal considerations and documents, such as the sales contract, insurance, transportation documents (e.g. bill of lading), payment mechanisms (e.g. letters of credit), export and import licenses, et cetera. Even the very establishment of a permanent export structure (franchise, subsidiary, et cetera) may raise an avalanche of legal issues that must be resolved in order for the business structure to work.

International Business Transactions: Licensing and Technology Transfers

The second category of international business transactions involves licensing of intellectual property rights and technology transfers. In reality, the technically-correct classification of international business transactions would place licensing and technology transactions as a variation on the export transactions. However, there are important distinctions between the first and the second categories of international business transactions that justify the classification of licensing and technology transfers as a separate category of international business transactions.

The basic idea behind the licensing and technology transfer transactions is not complex: instead of manufacturing a particular product in its home country and then exporting it to foreign countries, the company that owns the intellectual property rights licenses the actual science and the know-how behind the manufacturing process to a foreign firm so that it can manufacture the goods in the foreign country. In return, the company that owns the IP rights receives either a specified payment or a certain percentage based on annual gross sales or production volume.

The advantage of this type of export transaction is the relative ease with which the owner of IP rights can increase earnings without the need to set up a foreign distribution and services network. Moreover, the costs and risks of such a sales distribution network shift to licensee instead of the owner of the IP rights.

The technology transfer and IP licensing, however, carry significant risks of their own. First of all, there is a significant danger that the foreign licensee will master the new technology to directly compete with the IP owner. We have recently seen such an example with many “clean energy” Chinese companies. Second, there is a risk that the transferred technology may be simply stolen in a country where the IP rights are not property protected. Here, the problem is not only the appearance of an eventual competitor, but also of lost license fees. Finally, the licensee may improperly use the technology and create substandard goods, thereby damaging the reputation of the IP owner.

While these risks may be mitigated with proper business planning, one must be very careful about technology transfers and IP licensing, especially in the industries where technologies and know-how change at a slower pace.

International Business Transactions: Foreign Investment Transactions

The final major type of international business transactions consists of foreign investment transactions. This category, in turn, consists of two sub-categories: direct foreign investments and portfolio foreign investments.

Direct foreign investment usually implies an establishment or acquisition of a production capacity or a permanent enterprise, such as a factory or hotel, in the United States. In the United States, any equity investment of ten percent or more is classified as direct foreign investment. Usually, the foreign investor would directly participate in the management of this enterprise. Of course, the direct foreign investment can be done by a US investor investing directly in a foreign country and a foreign investor investing directly in the United States.

There are two types portfolio foreign investments. The first type consists of investments in debt instructions, such as bonds and debentures. The second type consists of an equity investment in which an investor does not have any management role.

There are many advantages to engaging in foreign investment transactions; I will just point out four such advantages here. First, an investor is investing directly into a foreign enterprise which is considered to be a “local” company, thereby avoiding the complications of exporting goods and services. Second, an acquisition of an already established company with its business network, established workforce and reputation, may facilitate a rapid growth in the sales of the produced goods or services. Third, unlike the first category of international business transactions, the host country may be very interested in a direct foreign investment, because it creates jobs and helps the local economy. Hence, an investor may benefit from government incentives, especially free economic zones which levy low to no tax. Finally, in the case of a portfolio investment, investors have limited exposure due to a diversified portfolio and limited equity stake in a single enterprise.

There may be, however, serious disadvantages to foreign investment transactions; I will mention here only three potential problems. First, a direct foreign investment exposes an investor to potential political and economic changes in the host country. For example, expropriation is a significant risk in South American countries. Second, a direct foreign investment implies an international corporate structure that may be very complex, expensive and require extensive tax and business planning. Finally, a portfolio investor without a management role is at the mercy of the company’s management, which may significantly affect the value of his investment.

International Business Transactions: Hybrid Investments

The classification of international business transactions that I provided above is an ideal one. In reality, hybrid investments (i.e. investments that have the features of more than one category of international business transactions) are widespread. One can easily find examples of portfolio investors who control an enterprise through a management agreement.