Posts

Tax Residency Starting Date | International Tax Lawyer & Attorney

/in , /by

In situations where a person was not classified as a resident alien at any time in the preceding calendar year and he became a resident alien at some point during current year, a question often arises concerning the tax residency starting date of such a person. This article seeks to provide a succinct overview of this question in three different contexts: US permanent residence, substantial presence test and election to be treated as a tax resident.

Tax Residency Starting Date: General Rule for Green Card Holders

Pursuant to IRC (Internal Revenue Code) §7701(b)(2)(A)(iii), the starting tax residency date for green card holders is the first day in the calendar year in which he or she is physically present in the United States while holding a permanent residence visa.  However, if the green card holder also satisfies the Substantial Presence Test prior to obtaining his green card, the tax residency is the earliest of either the green card test described in the previous sentence or the substantial presence test (see below).

Tax Residency Starting Date: General Rule for the Substantial Presence Test

Generally, under the substantial presence test, the tax residence of an alien starts on the first day of his physical presence in the United States in the year he met the substantial presence test. See IRC §7701(b)(2)(A)(iii).  For example, if an alien meets the requirements of the Substantial presence test in 2022 and his first day of physical presence in the United States was March 1, 2022, then his US tax residency started on March 1, 2022.

Tax Residency Starting Date: Nominal Presence Exception & the Substantial Presence Test

A reader may ask: how does the rule described above work in case of a “nominal presence” in the United States. IRC §7701(b)(2)(C) provides that, for the purposes of determining the residency starting date only, up to ten (10) days of presence in the United States may be disregarded, but only if the alien is able to establish that he had a “closer connection” to a foreign country rather than to the United States on each of those particular ten days (i.e., all continuous days during a visit to the United States may be excluded or none of them). There is some doubt about the validity of this rule, but it has never been contested in court as of the time of this writing.

This rule may lead to a paradoxical result.  For example, if X visits the United States between March 1 and March 10 and leaves on March 10; then later comes back to the United States on May 1 of the same year and meets the substantial presence test, then he may exclude the first ten days in March and his US tax residency will start on May 1.  If, however, X prolongs his visit and leaves on March 12, then none of the days will be excluded (since March 11 and 12 cannot be excluded under the rules) and his US tax residency will commence on March 1.

I want to emphasize that the nominal presence exception only applies in determining an alien’s residency starting date. It is completely irrelevant to the determination of whether a taxpayer met the Substantial Presence Test; i.e. the days excluded under the nominal presence exception are still counted toward the Substantial Presence Test calculation.

Tax Residency Starting Date: Additional Requirements for Nominal Presence Exception & Penalty for Noncompliance

The IRS has imposed two additional requirements concerning claiming “nominal presence” exclusion (again, both of them have questionable validity as there is nothing in the statutory language about them).  First, the alien must show that he had a “tax home” in the same foreign country with which he has a closer connection.

Second, Treas. Regs. §301.7701(b)-8(b)(3) requires that an alien who claims the nominal presence exception must file a statement with the IRS as well as attach such statement to his federal tax return for the year in which the termination is requested. The statement must be dated, signed, include a penalty of perjury clause and contain: (a) the first day and last day the alien was present in the United States and the days for which the exemption is being claimed; and (b) sufficient facts to establish that the alien has maintained his/her tax home in and a closer connection to a foreign country during the claimed period. Id.

A failure to file this statement may result in an imposition of a substantial penalty: a complete disallowance of the nominal presence exclusion claim.  Since IRC §7701(b)(8) does not contain the requirement to file any statements with the IRS to claim the nominal presence exception, the penalty stands on shaky legal grounds.  However, as of the time of this writing, there is no case law directly on point.

Additionally, as almost always in US international tax law, there are exceptions to this rule.  First, if the alien shows by clear and convincing evidence that he took: (a) “reasonable actions” to educate himself about the requirement to properly file the statement and (b) “significant affirmative actions” to comply with this requirement, then the IRS may still allow the nominal presence exclusion claim to proceed. Treas. Regs. 301.7701(b)-8(d). 

Second, under Treas. Regs. §301.7701(b)-8(e), the IRS has the discretion to ignore the taxpayer’s failure to file the required nominal presence statement if it is in the best interest of the United States to do so.

Tax Residency Starting Date: Election to Be Treated as a US Tax Resident

In situations where a resident alien elects to be treated as a US tax resident (for example, by filing a joint resident US tax return with his spouse), the tax residency date starts on the first day of the year for which election is made.  See Treas. Regs. §7701(b)(2)(A)(iv).

Contact Sherayzen Law Office for Professional Help with US International Tax Law, Including the Determination of the Tax Residency Starting Date

If you have foreign assets or foreign income or if you are trying to determine your tax residency status in the United States, contact Sherayzen Law Office for professional help.  Our law firm is a leader in US international tax compliance; we have helped hundreds of US taxpayers around the world and we can help you!

Contact Us Today to Schedule Your Confidential Consultation!

Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Seminar | MSBA, February 22 2022

/in , /by

On February 22, 2022, Mr. Eugene Sherayzen, an international tax attorney and founder of Sherayzen Law Office, Ltd., presented at a seminar “IRS Voluntary Disclosure Options for U.S. Owners of a Foreign Business” (the “Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Seminar”). The Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Seminar was sponsored by the International Business Law Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the seminar was conducted online.

Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Seminar: Focus on Business Lawyers’ Needs

The seminar’s structure was shaped by its audience’s needs. Since Mr. Sherayzen presented to a group of mostly international business lawyers, he adopted a relatively broad approach in his presentation in attempt to cover a large number of topics rather than discuss a few points in depth. The idea behind the seminar was to provide international business lawyers with analytical tools to understand if there was problem with a client’s US international tax compliance that would require a utilization of an offshore voluntary disclosure option.

Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Seminar: Three Main Parts

Mr. Sherayzen divided the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure seminar into three parts. In the first and smallest part, he discussed the link between Offshore Voluntary Disclosures and international business law. The second part focused on US international tax reporting requirements. Finally, in the third part, the international tax attorney provided a broad overview of the existing offshore voluntary disclosure options.

Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Seminar: Link between Offshore Voluntary Disclosures and International Business Law

In the first part of the seminar, Mr. Sherayzen discussed the potential relevance of the IRS offshore voluntary disclosure options and US international tax law in general to the audience’s international business law practice. The international tax attorney even described three main scenarios where international business lawyers will need to have awareness of: US international tax reporting requirements and IRS offshore voluntary disclosure options for US owners of a foreign business. At that point, Mr. Sherayzen gave an example from his own practice illustrating his main points.

Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Seminar: Overview of US International Tax Reporting Requirements for US Owners of a Foreign Business

In the next part of the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure seminar, Mr. Sherayzen provided a broad overview of two major categories of US international tax reporting requirements for individual US taxpayers: US international information returns and income tax recognition.

The international tax attorney first focused on international information returns. After defining the term “information return”, Mr. Sherayzen stated that the type of an information return one needs to file should correspond to the type of a foreign entity for which the return is filed. Then, he described three types of entities that may exist under US international tax law: corporations, partnerships and disregarded entities. Mr. Sherayzen proceeded with a discussion of the most common information returns associated with each of them.

Moreover, the attorney explained that FinCEN Form 114 or FBAR is the main form for reporting of foreign bank and financial accounts in a business context. He also warned the audience against a potential tax trap associated with FBAR reporting for foreign business entities.

Then, Mr. Sherayzen proceeded with an explanation of three major categories of income recognition: distributions, passthrough income and US anti-deferral tax regimes. The latter received the most attention due to their complexity. Three anti-deferral tax regimes were covered: PFICs, Subpart F rules and GILTI.

Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Seminar: Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Options

Mr. Sherayzen began this last major part of his presentation with a definition of the term “offshore voluntary disclosure”. Then, he focused on explaining two critical factors in choosing a voluntary disclosure option: (a) willfulness vs. non-willfulness; and (b) reasonable cause.

After defining these highly-important terms, the attorney laid out all major offshore voluntary disclosure options available to US owners of a foreign business. The presentation covered: IRS Voluntary Disclosure Practice, Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures, Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures, Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures, Delinquent International Information Return Submission Procedures and Reasonable Cause (Noisy) Disclosure.

Mr. Sherayzen also discussed the concept of quiet disclosure and why it presented potentially huge risks to noncompliant taxpayers. He emphasized that the IRS stated in the past that it would specifically target this type of a disclosure.

Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Seminar: Conclusion

The international tax attorney concluded the seminar with a concise due diligence plan of action for business lawyers. He emphasized that, upon discovery of potential US international tax noncompliance, business lawyers should not attempt to fix it themselves. Rather, he argued, they need to contact an international tax attorney for professional help.

Contact Sherayzen Law Office for Professional Help

If you are a US owner of a foreign business and you have not properly complied with your US international tax reporting requirements, contact Sherayzen Law Office for professional help. We have helped hundreds of US taxpayers around the globe to bring their US tax affairs into full compliance with US international tax law, and we can help you!

Contact Us Today to Schedule Your Confidential Consultation!

Coronavirus Offshore Voluntary Disclosure: Problems & Opportunities

/in , /by

The advancement of coronavirus in the United States and around the world has significantly disrupted the normal conditions and assumptions for a US taxpayer who engages in an offshore voluntary disclosure of his unreported foreign income and foreign assets. I will refer to a voluntary disclosure conducted in this context of the coronavirus disruptions as Coronavirus Offshore Voluntary Disclosure. In this essay, I would like to discuss the most unique problems and opportunities that arise in the context of a Coronavirus Offshore Voluntary Disclosure.

Coronavirus Offshore Voluntary Disclosure: Most Important Problems

The spread of coronavirus created two important problems to conducting an offshore voluntary disclosure of foreign assets and foreign income.

The first and most significant problem is the ability of taxpayers to obtain the information necessary for the correct completion of US international information returns such as FBAR (FinCEN Form 114), Form 8938, Form 8865, Form 5471, et cetera. Oftentimes, in order to complete these returns, taxpayers have to retrieve information from many years ago.

This is a difficult task even without the coronavirus, because electronic access is often limited to just a few years. In cases that involve small and regional banks, the electronic access to information may simply not exist. Hence, a taxpayer often has to engage in a long process of mailing letters to banks requesting information; it is also a standard practice for taxpayers to personally travel to a foreign financial institution to obtain the necessary information.

The coronavirus prohibitions have made such travel virtually impossible due to cancellation of flights between countries. Even traveling within a country has been severely impacted. Moreover, there have been significant disruptions to ability of taxpayers to access financial institutions in the quarantined areas, such as northern Italy. Many financial institutions have simply closed their branches and ceased to operate in a normal way.

The combination of all of these factors has significantly curtailed taxpayers’ ability to collect the vital information necessary for the completion of an offshore voluntary disclosure.

The second most important problem caused by the coronavirus panic are communication disruptions. During a voluntary disclosure, taxpayers need to have access to their financial advisors and their international tax attorney. I’ve already explained above how the coronavirus bank closures have affected such communications.

The most significant communication issue between a taxpayer and his international tax attorney has been limited to mailing documents, particularly securing an original signature for Certifications of Non-Willfulness, Reasonable Cause Statements, amended tax returns and certain other IRS documents (such as Extension of Statute of Limitations in the context of an IRS audit). The coronavirus containment procedures have affected the flow of regular mail around the world and have caused significant delays in obtaining signed documents from clients.

It should mentioned that the normal communications between a client and his attorney were not significantly impacted. If there were any communication problems, this is most likely the result of the attorney’s failure to take advantage of modern means of communication.

Sherayzen Law Office’s usage of email, phone, Skype, Viber and certain other platforms for information exchange and other modern means of communication has assured continuous and uninterrupted communication between our firm and our clients. We have also encouraged and helped our clients to adopt certain procedures to mitigate other problems that have risen as a result of the coronavirus panic.

Coronavirus Offshore Voluntary Disclosure: Unique Opportunities

The coronavirus panic created not only unusual problems, but also unique opportunities for taxpayers with undisclosed foreign assets and foreign income. I will discuss here the two most important coronavirus opportunities.

First, the spread of this virus has given more time for noncompliant US taxpayers to bring their tax affairs into compliance with US tax laws. Not only has the IRS ability to pursue new international tax cases has been impacted by the virus, but the IRS moved the tax filing deadline to July 15, 2020. This means that taxpayers suddenly have three more months to work on their offshore voluntary disclosures without any interruption with respect to current tax compliance.

Second, more time means that taxpayers now can plan for and adopt more complex and beneficial strategies with respect to their offshore voluntary disclosures. For example, taxpayers who were planning to file extensions can now adopt a strategy to shift their voluntary disclosure period by timely filing their 2019 tax returns and 2019 FBARs.

Contact Sherayzen Law Office for Professional Help With Your Offshore Voluntary Disclosure

If you have undisclosed foreign bank accounts and other foreign assets, contact Sherayzen Law Office for professional help. We have successfully helped hundreds of US taxpayers to bring their tax affairs into full compliance with US tax laws, and we can help you!

Contact Us Today to Schedule Your Confidential Consultation!

Coronavirus & Chinese Offshore Voluntary Disclosures | SDOP Tax Law Firm

/in , /by

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has disrupted many areas of human activity around the planet. The coronavirus even affected the IRS offshore voluntary disclosures concerning US taxpayers’ unreported financial assets and income in China (“Chinese Offshore Voluntary Disclosures”). In fact, the impact of coronavirus on the Chinese Offshore Voluntary Disclosures has been severe and extremely disruptive. Let’s look at the top three ways in which coronavirus has disrupted the Chinese Offshore Voluntary Disclosures.

Coronavirus & Chinese Offshore Voluntary Disclosures: Access to Information

The first and most important disruption caused by coronavirus is reduced access to information necessary to complete offshore voluntary disclosures. As a result of the quarantine measures, many financial institutions in China are either closed or work only limited hours. Hence, it has become much harder to obtain relevant information from the Chinese financial institutions, particularly with respect to certain complex investment products and investment insurance policies.

Moreover, as a result of the suspension of travel between China and the United States, many taxpayers are unable to travel to China to obtain the necessary documents. In many cases, internet access to financial data in China is limited to only a few years, whereas taxpayers often need to go back at least six years to obtain the necessary information to accurately complete their delinquent FBARs. In most instances, a taxpayer needs to personally visit his financial institution to collect this older data. At this point, this is almost impossible.

Coronavirus & Chinese Offshore Voluntary Disclosures: Mailing of Signed Documents

With respect to US taxpayers who are currently in China, many of them have limited ability to execute the documents necessary to complete offshore voluntary disclosures and mail them to their international tax attorneys in the United States.

Coronavirus & Chinese Offshore Voluntary Disclosures: Case Schedule

As a result of the two factors above as well as the current communication disruptions in the United States, the coronavirus has caused long delays in the voluntary disclosures that involve undisclosed financial assets in China. The schedule disruptions can last from weeks to months; in fact, in some cases, it is too early to be able to fully assess the impact of coronavirus on an offshore voluntary disclosure schedule.

While Sherayzen Law Office has been able to minimize the impact of coronavirus on the Chinese Offshore Voluntary Disclosures, certain delays still exist due to clients’ inability to obtain the necessary information.

Contact Sherayzen Law Office for Help With Chinese Offshore Voluntary Disclosures

If you have undisclosed financial accounts or foreign businesses in China, contact Sherayzen Law Office for professional help as soon as possible. While the disruptions caused by coronavirus have been severe, by employing careful planning, we can still help you maximize your ability to complete your offshore voluntary disclosure in an accurate and timely manner.

We have already helped hundreds of US taxpayers like you, including in China, to successfully bring their financial and business affairs in full compliance with US tax laws. We can help you!

Contact Us Today to Schedule Your Confidential Consultation!

Attribution Rules: Introduction | International Tax Lawyer & Attorney

/in , /by

One of the most popular tax reduction strategies is based on shifting an ownership interest in an entity or property to related persons or related entities. In order to prevent the abuse of this strategy, the US Congress has enacted a large number of attribution rules. In this brief essay, I will introduce the concept of attribution rules and list the most important attribution rules in the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”).

Attribution Rules: Definition and Purpose

The IRC attribution rules are designed to prevent taxpayers from shifting an ownership interest to related persons or entities. They achieve this result through a set of indirect and constructive ownership rules that shift the ownership interest assigned to third parties back to the taxpayer. In other words, the rules disregard the formal assignment of an ownership interest to a related third party and re-assign the ownership interest back to the assignor for specific determination purposes.

For example, in the context of determining whether a foreign corporation is a Controlled Foreign Corporation, all shares owned by the spouse of a taxpayer are deemed to be owned by the taxpayer if both spouses are US persons.

Attribution Rules: Design Similarities and Differences

The IRC contains a great variety of attribution rules. All of them are very detailed and have achieved a remarkable degree of specificity. Behind this specificity, all of the rules are always concerned with the substance of a transaction rather than its form. Hence, there always lurks a general question of whether there was a tax avoidance motive when a taxpayer entered into a transaction.

In spite of the fact that they share similar goals, the rules differ from each other in design. Most of these differences can be traced back to legislative history.

List of Most Important Attribution Rules

Here is a list of the most important attribution rules in the IRC (all section references are to the IRC):

1. The constructive ownership rules of §267, which apply to disallow certain deductions and losses incurred in transactions between related parties;

2. The constructive ownership rules of §318, which apply in corporate-shareholder transactions and other transactions, including certain foreign transactions expressly referenced in §6038(e).

3. The constructive ownership rules of §544; these are the personal holding company rules which apply to determine when a corporation will be subject to income tax on undistributed income.

3a. While they are now repealed, the foreign personal holding company rules of §554 are still important. In the past, they applied to determine whether US shareholders of a foreign corporation would be taxed on deemed distributions which were not actually made;

4. Highly important Subpart F constructive ownership rules of §958, which apply to determine when US shareholders of a Controlled Foreign Corporation should be taxed on deemed distributions which are not actually made;

5. The PFIC constructive ownership rules of §1298, which apply to determine whether a US shareholder is subject to the unfavorable rules concerning certain distributions by a PFIC and sales of PFIC stock; and

6. The controlled group constructive ownership rules of §1563 which determine whether related corporations are subject to the limitations and benefits prescribed for commonly controlled groups.

This is not a comprehensive list of all attribution rules, there are other rules which apply in more specific situations.

Contact Sherayzen Law Office for Professional Help With the Attribution Rules

The rules of ownership attribution are highly complex. A failure to comply with them may result in the imposition of high IRS penalties.

This is why you need to contact the highly experienced international tax law firm of Sherayzen Law Office. We have helped US taxpayers around the globe to deal with the US tax rules concerning ownership attribution, and We Can Help You!

Contact Us Today to Schedule Your Confidential Consultation!