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Foreign Inheritance Tax Attorney San Jose | International Tax Lawyers California

Receiving a foreign inheritance may open a litany of US international tax compliance obligations. Therefore, one of the first things you should do is to seek the help of an international tax attorney who specializes in foreign inheritance reporting.  If you reside in San Jose, California, you need to look for a Foreign Inheritance Tax Attorney San Jose. You will find that Sherayzen Law Office Ltd. is very likely to be the perfect fit for you.

Foreign Inheritance Tax Attorney San Jose: Why Foreign Inheritance is So Important to Your US international Tax Compliance

There are two main reasons why receiving a foreign inheritance may be a critical event for your US international tax compliance. First, receiving a foreign inheritance means that you have additional assets, income and transactions to report to the IRS.  The way that US international tax law works, it means that it is usually more than just one requirement is triggered. Rather, it may be a set of issues and reporting obligations that require an experienced international tax attorney to resolve them correctly. 

The multitude and complexity of issues can be fairly large: from the reporting of the foreign inheritance itself, income recognition, transfer of cash/assets to the United States to additional reporting requirements concerning newly acquired foreign assets and offshore voluntary disclosures involving prior noncompliance. You should keep in mind that noncompliance with these requirements may result in the assessment of high IRS penalties.

The second reason why a foreign inheritance is so important and so dangerous is the relative complacency with respect to and even complete nonrecognition of the potential US tax consequences of receiving a foreign inheritance with all of the multitude of issues to which I alluded above.  The problem is not just that many US taxpayers are completely ignorant of the fact that a foreign inheritance may require extensive US tax compliance. Even worse, many taxpayers erroneously but ardently believe that a foreign inheritance is something completely unrelated to the United States and should not have any US tax consequences. At best, they may focus on Form 3520 reporting while overlooking the complexity of the rest of the issues involved in receiving a foreign inheritance.

This is precisely why I highly recommend consulting an international tax lawyer with extensive experience in foreign inheritance US tax reporting, such as Sherayzen Law Office, if you have received or about to receive a foreign inheritance.

Foreign Inheritance Tax Attorney San Jose: International Tax Lawyer

I just mentioned that you need to seek the help of an international tax attorney rather than just a foreign inheritance tax attorney.  Why is that?

The answer is simple: a foreign inheritance attorney is first and foremost an international tax lawyer – i.e. a lawyer with profound knowledge of and extensive experience in US international tax law, particularly in the area of US international tax compliance. This means that a lawyer must be familiar with such common US international tax forms as Form 3520 (critically important for foreign inheritance reporting) and Form 8938.  He must also understand and be able to identify related US international tax compliance forms such as Forms 3520-A, 5471, 8858, 8865 cetera.  Of course, every US international tax lawyer must be very familiar with FinCEN Form 114 commonly known as FBAR.

In addition to these information returns, an international tax lawyer must be familiar with all types of foreign income reporting.  This requirement includes the knowledge of foreign rental income, PFIC complianceGILTI income, capital gains concerning foreign real estate, et cetera.

Sherayzen Law Office is a highly experienced international tax law firm with respect to all of these income tax and information return requirements, including specifically all of the aforementioned forms.

Foreign Inheritance Tax Attorney San Jose: Tax Planning

It is highly prudent to engage in tax planning concerning a foreign inheritance. This is important not only for the purpose of limiting future tax burdens, but also to control future US tax compliance costs.  

Sherayzen Law Office has extensive experience in foreign inheritance US tax planning for its clients in San Jose and all over the world.  We also have highly valuable experience of combining income tax planning with offshore voluntary disclosures.

Foreign Inheritance Tax Attorney San Jose: Offshore Voluntary Disclosures

Perhaps you learned late about your US international tax compliance requirements concerning foreign inheritance. In fact, this is a very common situation. In this case, you will find yourself in a very uncomfortable position of facing potentially multiple high IRS penalties for multiple violations of US international tax law.

For this reason, your foreign inheritance tax attorney must also have a profound understanding of the IRS voluntary disclosure options. In fact, in my experience, a discussion of a foreign inheritance often leads to the identification of past US international tax noncompliance and the immediate discussion of IRS offshore voluntary disclosure to remedy past noncompliance.

Offshore Voluntary Disclosures is a core area of our international tax practice at Sherayzen Law Office. We have helped hundreds of US taxpayers worldwide, including in San Jose, to bring their tax affairs into full compliance with US tax laws. This work included the preparation and filing of all kinds of offshore voluntary disclosures including: SDOP (Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures)SFOP (Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures)DFSP (Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures), DIIRSP (Delinquent International Information Return Submission Procedures), et cetera.

Contact Sherayzen Law Office for Professional Foreign Inheritance Tax Help

Sherayzen Law Office is an international tax law firm that specializes in US international tax compliance, including foreign inheritance reporting.  We have helped numerous clients around the world with their foreign inheritance US tax compliance. We can help you!

Hence, if you are looking for a Foreign Inheritance Tax Attorney San Jose, contact us now to schedule Your Confidential Consultation!

IRS Revenue Procedure 92-70 (1992-2 C.B. 435)

SECTION I. PURPOSE

This revenue procedure provides a summary filing procedure for filing Form 5471 with respect to dormant foreign corporations described in section 3 below. Persons complying with this revenue procedure satisfy their Form 5471 filing obligations under sections 6038(a)(1), 6038(a)( 4), and 6046(a)(3) with respect to dormant foreign corporations and will not be subject to penalties related to the failure to timely file a complete Form 5471 and to timely furnish information requested thereon.

SEC. 2. BACKGROUND

.01 Section 6038(a)(l) imposes information reporting requirements on any United States person who controls a foreign corporation. Pursuant to section 6038(a)(4), the information reporting requirements prescribed in section 6038 (a)( 1) also are imposed on any United States person who is treated as a United States shareholder of any foreign corporation that is treated as a controlled foreign corporation for any purpose under subpart F.

.02 Section 6046(a)(3) imposes reporting requirements on each person who is treated as a United States shareholder of a controlled foreign corporation under section 953(c).

.03 Section 1.6038-2 of the Income Tax Regulations requires a United States person controlling a foreign corporation to file an annual information return on Form 5471 specifying certain identifying information, stock, shareholder, earnings and profits, and financial information about the foreign corporation, as well as transactions between the foreign corporation, the filer, certain other shareholders, and entities related to the filer or the foreign corporation.

.04 Section 1.6038-2(j)(1) of the regulations allows two or more U.S. persons who are required to furnish information with respect to the same foreign corporation and for the same period to satisfy this obligation by filing a joint return. Pursuant to section 1.6038-2(j)(2) of the regulations, a U.S. person required to furnish information solely by reason of stock ownership attribution from another U.S. person is excepted from furnishing information if he does not directly own an interest in the corporation and all such required information otherwise is furnished by the person from whom the ownership is attributed. Section 1.6038-2(j)(3) of the regulations requires any U.S. person relying on section 1.6038-2(j)(1) or (2) to file a statement with his income tax return indicating that his filing liability will be satisfied by another return, identifying that return, and identifying the place of return filing.

.05 Section 1.6046-1(e)(1) of the regulations allows two or more U.S. persons who are required by section 1.6046-l(c) of the regulations to file a return with respect to the same corporation to satisfy this obligation by filing a joint return. Under section 1.6046-l(e)(4)(iii) of the regulations, a U.S. person required to file a return under section 1.6046-1(c) is excepted from this filing requirement if he is required to file solely by reason of stock ownership attribution from another U.S. person, he does not directly own an interest in the foreign corporation, and the information required by section 1.6046-1(c) is otherwise furnished by the U.S. person from whom the ownership is attributed. Pursuant to section 1.6046-1(e)(5) of the regulations, any U.S. person required by section 1.6046-1(c) to furnish information regarding a foreign corporation may, if such information is furnished by another person having an equal or greater stock interest (measured in terms of value of such stock) in such corporation, satisfy such requirement by filing a statement with his return on Form 5471 indicating that such liability has been satisfied and identifying the return in which such information was included .

.06 Section 6038(b)(l) imposes monetary penalties for a failure to timely furnish any information required by section 6038(a)(l) with respect to a foreign corporation (including entities treated as controlled foreign corporations under sections 957 and 953). Additional penalty amounts may apply under section 6038(b)(2) where the failure to furnish information continues for more than 90 days after notification by the Secretary.

.07 Section 6038(c) mandates a reduction in certain foreign tax credits for a failure to timely furnish information required by section 6038(a)(l) absent a showing of reasonable cause for the delay. Additional credit reductions may apply where such failures continue for more than 90 days after notice by the Secretary.

.08 Section 6679 imposes monetary penalties for a failure to timely file a return or to provide information specified in any return required by section 6046 absent a showing of reasonable cause for the failure.

. 09 Criminal penalties (fines and imprisonment) are imposed by section 7203 for a willful failure to file a return, including an information return required by section 6038 or 6046.

SEC. 3. SCOPE

This revenue procedure applies to persons required under section 6038(a)(1), 6038(a)(4) or 6046(a)(3) to file a Form 5471 with respect to a foreign corporation that is a dormant foreign corporation. For purposes of this revenue procedure, a foreign corporation is a dormant foreign corporation if, at all times during the foreign corporation’s annual accounting period (within the meaning of section 6038(e)(2)):

(1) the foreign corporation conducted no business and owned no stock in any other corporation other than another dormant foreign corporation;

(2) no shares of the foreign corporation (other than directors’ qualifying shares) were sold, exchanged, redeemed, or otherwise transferred, nor was the foreign corporation a party to a reorganization;

(3) no assets of the foreign corporation were sold, exchanged, or otherwise transferred, except for de minimis transfers described in (4) and (5) below;

(4) the foreign corporation received or accrued no more than $5,000 of gross income or gross receipts;

(5) the foreign corporation paid or accrued no more than $5,000 of expenses;

(6) the value of the foreign corporation’s assets as determined pursuant to U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (but not reduced by any mortgages or other liabilities) did not exceed $100,000;

(7) no distributions were made by the foreign corporation; and

(8) the foreign corporation either had no current or accumulated earnings and profits or had only de minimis changes in its beginning and ending accumulated earnings and profits balances by reason of income or expenses specified in (4) or (5) above.

SEC. 4. GENERAL PROCEDURE

.01 In lieu of filing a complete Form 5471 for each dormant foreign corporation, the filer may use the summary filing procedure described in this section. A filer may not use this summary filing procedure to report an interest in a foreign corporation that was a dormant foreign corporation in a prior year but that does not meet the requirements of section 3 above in the current filing year.

.02 To elect the summary filing procedure, the filer must attach and file Page One of the Form 5471 (the summary return) for each dormant foreign corporation with its regularly filed income tax return. The filer also must file a copy of each summary return with the Internal Revenue Service Center, Philadelphia, PA, along with the filer’s other Forms 5471 (if any). The top margin of each summary return must be labeled “Filed Pursuant to Rev. Proc. 92-70 for Dormant Foreign Corporations.”

.03 The summary return must be completed for the following filer items: the filer’s name and address, identifying number, filing category, stock ownership percentage, and tax year.

.04 The summary return must be completed for the following corporate items: the dormant foreign corporation’s annual accounting period (within the meaning of section 6038(e)(2)), name and address, employer identification number (if any), country of incorporation, and date of incorporation.

.05 By using the summary filing procedure, the filer agrees that it will provide any information required by sections 6038 and 6046, the regulations thereunder, or on Form 5471 and not specified in sections 4.03 or 4.04, within 90 days of being asked to do so on audit.

SEC. 5. RELIEF

.01 Persons complying with the summary filing procedure described in section 4 satisfy their Form 5471 filing obligations arising under sections 6038(a)(1), 6038(a)(4), and 6046(a)(3) as to the specified dormant foreign corporations. Accordingly, sections 6038(b)(1), 6038(c), 6679, and 7203 will not apply to a filer properly employing the procedure. However, penalties and foreign tax credit reductions under sections 6038(b)(2) and 6038(c)(1) can be imposed (pursuant to sections 1.6038-2(k)(l)(ii) and l.6038-2(k)(2)(iv) of the regulations) for a failure to timely furnish information under section 4.05 of this revenue procedure.

.02 To the extent that a Form 5471 filing by a filer could satisfy the filing obligation of another person (the “other person”) under section 1.6038-2(j) of the regulations, such other person may use the provisions of section 1.6038-2(j) if the other person satisfies the requirements of section 1.6038-2(j)(3) and the filer complies with this revenue procedure and attaches a statement providing the name, address, identifying number, and corporate status of the other person. If the provisions of section 1.6038-2(j) are used as provided in this section 5.02, the other person on whose behalf the Form is filed satisfies his Form 5471 filing obligations arising under sections 6038(a)(1) and 6038(a)(4) as to the specified dormant foreign corporations and is not liable for penalties as specified in section 5.01 above.

.03 Persons described in section 6046(a)(3) are treated, for purposes of this revenue procedure, as described in section 1.6046-1(c)(1) of the regulations. Therefore, to the extent that a Form 5471 filing by a filer could satisfy the filing obligation of another person (the “other person”) under section 1.6046-1(e) of the regulations, such other person may use the provisions of section 1.6046-1(e) if the other person satisfies the filing requirement of section 1.6046-1(e)(5) (if applicable) and the filer complies with this revenue procedure and attaches a statement providing the name, address, identifying number, and corporate status of the other person. If the provisions of section 1.6046-l(e) are used as provided in this section 5.03, the other person on whose behalf the Form is filed satisfies his Form 5471 filing obligations arising under section 6046(a)(3) as to the specified dormant foreign corporations and is not liable for penalties as specified in section 5.01 above.

.04 The relief afforded by this revenue procedure relates solely to a filer’s information reporting obligations and does not affect a filer’s liability for tax on income distributed or deemed distributed from a dormant foreign corporation. Thus, for example, de minimis amounts of subpart F income derived by a controlled foreign corporation that qualifies as a dormant foreign corporation under section 3 above are taxable to the corporation’s United States shareholders to the extent provided in sections 951 and 952 and should be reported on each shareholder’s federal income tax return.

SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE

This revenue procedure is effective for Forms 5471 required to be filed (including extensions) on or after September 15, 1992.

IRS 2013 Budget Proposal Emphasizes International Tax Enforcement

Every year, the President has to submit a budget request to U.S. Congress for federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service. In February of 2012, the IRS posted the following information regarding its budget.

Administration’s fiscal year (FY) 2013 budget request for the Internal Revenue Service is approximately $12.8 billion, a $944.5 million increase (8%) over the FY 2012 enacted level.

A significant portion of the increase from FY 2012 represents the Administration’s request to restore lost revenue resulting from reductions in IRS funding made over the past two years. This request is designed to provide the resources necessary to administer and enforce the current tax code, implement recent changes to the law to update the Code and serve the American taxpayer in a timely manner.

In FY 2011, the IRS collected $2.415 trillion in taxes, representing 92 percent of federal government receipts. The IRS processed more than 144.7 million individual returns during the 2011 filing season and issued almost 110 million refunds totaling $345 billion.

The IRS consistently achieves a high return on investment for its activities while running a fiscally disciplined operation. In FY 2013, the IRS expects to identify nearly $71 million in cost savings from increased use of electronic return filing, reductions in non-case related travel and streamlining operations.

Enforcement Program

IRS Enforcement Program is projected to receive the lion’s share of the increase. The FY 2013 budget includes $403 million in new IRS enforcement activities, which are expected to raise $1.48 billion in revenue annually at full performance, once new hires are fully trained and develop broader experience by FY 2015. This is a 4.3-to-1 return on investment. The return on investment is even greater when factoring in the deterrence value of these investments and other IRS enforcement programs, which is conservatively estimated to be at least three times the direct revenue impact.

The enforcement budget also includes $200 million in additional examination and collection programs that will generate more than $1.1 billion in additional annual enforcement revenue by FY 2015. Investments such as these in IRS enforcement programs are especially important to further the IRS’ mission of improving tax compliance.

International Tax Compliance Emphasized by the IRS

International tax compliance is specifically emphasized by the IRS. The IRS will continue to address offshore tax evasion by individuals through a combined “carrot and stick” approach – special offshore voluntary disclosure program and increased examinations and prosecutions.

International tax compliance will also concern domestic businesses operating abroad and foreign businesses owned by U.S. taxpayers. In order to ensure business entity compliance, the IRS will provide additional international technical specialists to increase coverage of complex international transactions.

Contact Sherayzen Law Office for Tax Help with International Tax Compliance Issues

If you have any issues regarding international tax compliance with U.S. laws and regulations, contact Sherayzen Law Office. Our experienced international tax firm will review the facts of your case, analyze the available options, propose a concrete plan of action with respect to your U.S. tax compliance issues, and implement this plan (including drafting and completing the necessary tax documents and forms).