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Seattle FBAR Attorney | FATCA International Tax Lawyer

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Due to Seattle’s proximity to Canada and a large amount of foreign professionals employed by high-tech firms (especially Microsoft), there is a large number of residents of Seattle, Washington, who have an obligation to report their foreign accounts. The great majority of these people need the assistance of professional Seattle FBAR attorney, but they find it difficult to decide who to retain. Often, they find that the attorney who they like lives outside of Seattle (for example, in Minneapolis) and they are not sure if they should prefer him over local Seattle FBAR Attorneys. This short essay is devoted to defining the term Seattle FBAR Attorney and the description of the main criteria which should guide you in retaining your Seattle FBAR Attorney.

Seattle FBAR Attorney: Definition

The term Seattle FBAR Attorney includes two groups of FBAR attorneys. First, all of the FBAR Attorneys who reside in Seattle, Washington, should be considered Seattle FBAR Attorneys.

The second group includes all FBAR Attorneys who reside outside of Seattle but offer their FBAR services to the residents of Seattle. Hence, the geographical location of your FBAR Attorney does not actually matter, only the geographical scope of his FBAR services.

Why is this case? The answer is relatively simple – FBAR is a federal compliance requirement. This means that neither the State of Washington nor the city of Seattle have anything to do with it.

Seattle FBAR Attorney: Knowledge of International Tax Law and FBARs is the Key Criteria for Retainer

Now that we know who is considered to be a Seattle FBAR Attorney, we can turn to the key criteria for choosing the right Seattle FBAR Attorney. There are two main considerations in choosing your FBAR Attorney: professional and personal.

The professional criteria consists of the requirement that your Seattle FBAR Attorney be an international tax lawyer with a lot of experience working with FBAR and FBAR-related issues. It is not enough for your attorney to simply know what the FBARs are and how to prepare them. FBAR issues are often deeply intertwined with other US international tax requirements that determine a taxpayer’s legal and tax positions. Therefore, your Seattle FBAR Attorney must have profound knowledge of other related international tax law issues, regulations and compliance requirements.

In addition to the knowledge of the subject-matter (i.e. “objective criteria”), there is also a subjective criteria – do you feel he is devoted to your case? The issue of trust is the most important consideration here – both the client and the attorney will feel frustrated with the case if there is a deep distrust between them. This distrust may have a great influence on the outcome of the case.

Thus, in retaining your Seattle FBAR Attorney, you need to be looking for an international tax attorney who satisfies both criteria.

Seattle FBAR Attorney: Means of Communication is Not an Issue

Is there a difference between the ability to communicate with an out-of-state Seattle FBAR Attorney and a local one? Should this issue become part of the retainer criteria?

The answer is “no”: the objective ability to communicate (i.e. the availability of the modes of communication, rather than an attorney’s personal attitude toward communicating with a client) is not an issue in retaining a Seattle FBAR Attorney. The development of modern communications technology has eliminated the entire advantage of retaining a local Seattle FBAR Attorney. Even if your attorney resides in Seattle, almost all of your communication with him is going to be through email, telephone and regular mail – i.e. the same as if your attorney resides in Minneapolis. The person-to-person meetings are now easily replaced by a video Skype conference.

Obviously, personal subjective ability (i.e. availability and readiness to communicate with his clients) of a Seattle FBAR Attorney (irrespective of where he actually resides) to communicate with his clients is part of the subjective criteria for the retainer already discussed above.

Contact Sherayzen Law Office to Retain Your Seattle FBAR Attorney

Based on the analysis above, Sherayzen Law Office should be one of the preferred choices in your search for a Seattle FBAR Attorney. Sherayzen Law Office holds a leading position in the world on FBAR compliance due to its highly-experienced international tax team, headed by its founder Attorney Eugene Sherayzen. We have helped our clients throughout the world with FBAR compliance and all related international tax issues, including voluntary disclosure of foreign accounts under the IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program, Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures, Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures, Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures, Delinquent International Information Return Submission Procedures and Reasonable Cause Disclosures (also known as “noisy disclosures”).

This is why, if you are looking for a Seattle FBAR Attorney, you should contact Sherayzen Law Office, Ltd. today to schedule Your Confidential Consultation!

FBAR Filing: FinCEN’s Third Extension for Certain Signatory Authority Filers

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In FinCEN Notice 2012-2, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced a third extension of time for certain Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) filings in light of ongoing consideration of questions regarding the filing requirement and its application to individuals with signature authority over but no financial interest in certain types of accounts. The new extended deadline is set for June 30, 2014.

This extended filing deadline applies only to the following classes of individuals:

1). An employee or officer of a covered entity (see 31 C.F.R. § 1010.350(f)(2)(i)-(v)) who has signature or other authority over and no financial interest in a foreign financial account of another entity more than 50 percent owned, directly or indirectly, by the entity (a “controlled person”). For this purpose, a “controlled person” is a U.S. or foreign entity that is more than 50% owned (directly or indirectly) by an excepted entity.
2). An employee or officer of a controlled person of a covered entity (see 31 C.F.R. § 1010.350(f)(2)(i)-(v)) who has signature or other authority over and no financial interest in a foreign financial account of the entity or another controlled person of the entity.
3). An employee or officer of an investment advisor registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission who has signature or other authority over and no financial interest in a foreign financial account of persons that are not investment companies registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940.

Notice that categories 1 and 2 do not apply to companies that are not publicly traded or not SEC-registrants.

This extension comes after a series of earlier extensions by FinCEN. On February 14, 2012, FinCEN issued Notice 2012-1 to extend the filing date for FinCEN Form 114 Formerly TD F 90-22.1, FBAR, for certain individuals with signature authority over but no financial interest in one or more foreign financial accounts to June 30, 2013. This Notice was preceded by two earlier extensions: on May 31, 2011, FinCEN issued Notice 2011-1 (revised on June 2, 2011) to extend to June 30, 2012, the due date for filing the FBAR for certain individuals with signature authority over but no financial interest in one or more foreign financial accounts, specifically individuals whose FBAR filing requirements may be affected by the signature authority filing exceptions in 31 CFR § 1010.350(f)(2)(i)-(v). On June 17, 2011, FinCEN issued Notice 2011-2 similarly extending the FBAR filing due date to June 30, 2012, for certain employees or officers of investment advisers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission who have signature authority over but no financial interest in certain foreign financial accounts.

The extension contained in FinCEN Notice 2012-2 is the third filing extension for individuals with signature authority over but no financial interest in certain types of accounts. It covers not only the reporting of signature authority held by such persons for 2012, but also for all other years for which filing was previously extended to June 30, 2012, under FinCEN Notices 2011-1 and 2011-2.

It is important to note, however, that all other taxpayers who are required to file an FBAR must still do so by June 30, 2013.

Gold Bullion Foreign Accounts and FBAR

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A frequent question in my practice is whether a foreign account holding gold bullion is required to be reported on FinCEN Form 114 formerly Form TD F 90-22.1, usually referred to as “FBAR” (Report on Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts).

FBAR is required to be filed by any U.S. person who has a financial interest in or signature authority or other authority over any financial account in a foreign country, if the aggregate value of these accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year. FBAR is due April 15th or October 15th (for the previous calendar year). There is an automatic extension if the FBAR is not filed by the April 15th deadline, unlike Federal and some State returns that must be filed by extension. For federal returns the extension is Form 4868. The FBAR rules are enforced by the Internal Revenue Service.  You can read more about the general FBAR requirements here.

Whether gold buillion is required to be reported on the FBAR involves a general issue of whether FBAR definition of “financial account” covers foreign accounts that hold only non-monetary assets.  The answer is yes – an account with a financial institution that is located in a foreign country is a financial account for FBAR purposes whether the account holds cash or non-monetary assets.

Therefore, most taxpayers must reports foreign accounts that hold gold bullion on the FBAR.

Contact Sherayzen Law Office For FBAR Help

If you have any questions with respect to FBARs or you just found out that you should have filed the FBARs for the past years and you wish to go through a voluntary disclosure, contact Sherayzen Law Office as soon as possible.  Our experienced international tax firm can help you deal with any FBAR-related issues.

Remember, it does not matter whether you are located in another state or outside of the United States – we can help!