Fluent in English, Spanish & Italian | 888-882-9243

call us toll free: 888-8TAXAID

Monthly Archives: August 2012

FLORIDA TAX ALERT – CONVENIENCE STORES TARGETED!!!

If you have any clients in the convenience store industry, then you have probably heard that the Florida Department of Revenue has painted a state wide target on the industry.

THE REASON - A belief that the industry is systematically under reporting/remitting sales tax

THE AMMUNITION - Detailed information about alcohol and tobacco PURCHASES by retailer, by month, and by type of product available for the first time from alcohol and tobacco wholesalers

THE RESULT - The Florida Department of Revenue is completely skipping the audit and simply issuing a Form DR-1216 - Notice of Intent to Make Audit Changes

For anyone in the Florida Convenience Store Industry, this is a very, very serious matter. We have been getting a lot of calls from very concerned business owners about this topic and I have yet to see an assessment for less than $100,000.

If you have Florida Sales Tax Problems, contact the Tax Lawyers at Marini & Associates, P.A. for a FREE Tax Consultation at www.TaxAid.us or www.TaxLaw.ms or Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243).

Read more at: Tax Times blog

Can IRS Offshore Account Program Clean Up Domestic Tax Problems Too?

In a word, yes. In fact, you can’t be selective when amending tax returns. You can’t pick and choose what to correct. If you amend a tax return, you must fix all errors. As a corollary, if you’re coming clean in a voluntary disclosure you must clean up everythingin the tax years that are impacted.

Whether your unreported income is foreign or domestic, the IRS expects you to fully correct your mistakes. The OVDP is designed to let the thousands of people with undeclared accounts and unreported income to pay their taxes, interest and fixed penalties. The tradeoff? They’ll escape the far more draconian penalties and prosecution that staying quiet can entail.http://i.forbesimg.com tMove down

Domestic Tax Problems. The OVDP is a nice avenue for cleaning up domestic tax flubs at the same time. For foreign account disclosures, the IRS has a helpful set of FAQs. They were updated in late June 2012 in key respects. Notably, though, going beyond the subject of offshore account and income, the IRS has made it crystal clear that you can fix domestic tax problems at the same time you disclose your foreign income and accounts.

In fact, since you can’t be selective, you must make an accurate and complete voluntary disclosure. If you have undisclosed income tax liabilities from domestic sources in addition to those related to offshore accounts and assets, they must also be disclosed in the OVDP. See FAQ 24.

Different Examiners. One practical wrinkle this can invoke is the nature of the examination you’ll undergo. IRS OVDP cases are handled by dedicated Revenue Agents handling foreign account and income disclosures. If you have domestic tax issues too, you may end up with a different IRS examiner for those issues.

You’ll have one Revenue Agent handling the domestic issues and one handling the foreign issues. The domestic disclosure will be treated as a disclosure under the Voluntary Disclosure Practice and may be assigned to a different examiner.

If you have Unreported Foreign Bank Accounts, contact the Tax Lawyers at Marini & Associates, P.A. for a FREE Tax Consultation at www.TaxAid.us or www.TaxLaw.ms or Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243).

Forbes

Read more at: Tax Times blog

Draft of Form W-8IMYwith FATCA Changes

The IRS released modified versions of draft Form W-8IMY, Certificate of Foreign Intermediary, Foreign Flow-Through Entity, or Certain U.S. Branches for United States Tax Withholding., on August 13, 2012.

The new form reveals a foreign financial institution employment identification number (FFI-EIN) and a FATCA ID for participating FFIs and deemed-compliant FFIs. In order to protect taxpayer confidentiality, the IRS decided to issue entities the two different numbers to serve different roles.

The FFI-EIN will be used for filing purposes and the FATCA ID will be used for public verification purposes. A foreign tax identifying number will now also be required on Form W-8BEN.

In June we Blogged about the IRS' release of Draft of Form W-8BEN with FATCA Changes, which modified versions of draft Form W-8BEN, Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding, for individuals and entities.

The draft Form, now divided into W-8BEN and W-8BEN-E, is a pre-release, but as expected, it indicates changes to come for foreign financial institutions and withholding agents which are now reflected in this newly released draft of Form W-8IMY.

If you have any questions regarding Form W-8BEN OR W-8IMY, contact the Tax Lawyers at Marini & Associates, P.A. for a FREE Tax Consultation at www.TaxAid.us or www.TaxLaw.ms or Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243).

Read more at: Tax Times blog

Swiss Bank Advising Clients to Move Their Funds to Singapore

Swiss banks denied it is helping wealthy Germans dodge taxes by telling them to move funds to Singapore and other money centres ahead of a Swiss tax deal due to come into force in January.

"We do not help clients to evade taxes and we clearly don't support clients in circumventing bilateral tax agreements, including the one with Germany," UBS private bank boss Juerg Zeltner told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

He was responding to a media report last week which said UBS, Europe's fifth-largest bank by market value, had advised German clients to move funds to Singapore to avoid detection by authorities ahead of the planned withholding tax.

If you have Unreported Foreign Bank Accounts, contact the Tax Lawyers at Marini & Associates, P.A. for a FREE Tax Consultation at www.TaxAid.us or www.TaxLaw.ms or Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243).

Read more at: Tax Times blog

Live Help