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Monthly Archives: April 2016

Huge Leak From the Panamanian Law Firm Mossack Fonseca!

April 4, 2016

According to Forbes, the offshore planning world was set on fire this weekend with the news that 11 million documents were leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. According to a BBC article found.

They show how Mossack Fonseca has helped clients launder money, dodge sanctions and evade tax. The company says it has operated beyond reproach for 40 years and has never been charged with criminal wrong-doing.

The documents show links to 72 current or former heads of state in the data, including dictators accused of looting their own countries.

Gerard Ryle, director of the ICIJ, said the documents covered the day-to-day business at Mossack Fonseca over the past 40 years.

While the neither the BBC article, nor a more detailed series of articles from the International Consortium of International Journalists, reference any U.S. client;, U.S. persons will probably show up, given that Mossack Fonseca apparently maintained a branch in Las Vegas, Nevada, under the name of M.F. Company Services and Mossack Fonseca Company Services is currently attempting to fight a subpoena brought in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada seeking information on at least 123 companies that it created.

Do You Have Undeclared Income 
From A Foreign Company
Formed By Mossack Fonseca ?
 

 
 
 Want to Know if the OVDP Program is Right for You?

 
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

2015 IRS Data Book – Working Individuals Paying Most of the Taxes with Increases Every Year – Who Are You Voting For?

April 4, 2016

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Data Book is published annually by the IRS and contains statistical tables and organizational information on a fiscal year basis. The report provides data on collecting the revenue, issuing refunds, enforcing the law, assisting the taxpayer, and the budget and workforce.

Highlights of this year's 2015 Data Book

  • During FY 2015, the IRS collected more than $3.3 trillion, processed more than 243 million tax returns and other forms, and issued over $403 billion in tax refunds.
  • With more than a 15-percent reduction in full-time-equivalent staffing compared to 5 years ago, operations across a number of areas were downsized, including the total number of individual tax return examinations, which decreased by 22 percent over the same time period.
  • The agency’s Website continued to get heavy use with more than 493 million visits to IRS.gov in FY 2015; and one of our most popular online tools, “Where’s My Refund?”, handled a record-breaking 234 million inquiries, a 24-percent increase over the prior year.

Graphic shows gross collections by type of tax for fiscal years 2006 through 2015. There has been slow and steady growth in total gross collections, which include individual income, business income, employment, estate and gift, and excise tax.

This chart also evidences the unfairness in the Internal Revenue Code, as it reflects that individuals continue to bear the burden of paying most of the taxes every year and the only thing they have to look forward to is increases in the amount of taxes they pay collectively every year.

I can also tell you from experience that it's not the top 1% of the wealthiest individuals who are paying most of these individual taxes, its is all of us W-2 Wage Earning Employees a/k/a the Middle Class.

If you want this to change, please consider the different tax policies offered by the various presidential candidates when you vote. Here are the Presidential Candidates and their respective tax plans as described by Tax Policy Center (TPC ) of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institute.

        

      Sanders Tax Plan

    Clinton Tax Plan 

Interesting Image

   Trump Tax Plan                                     Cruz Tax Plan

 

Have a Tax Problem?
Contact the Tax Lawyers at
Marini & Associates, P.A.
 for a FREE Tax Consultation Contact US at 
www.TaxAid.us or www.TaxLaw.ms
or Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243).

 

Read more at: Tax Times blog

IRS Revises Due Date for Form 8971 For All Estates Filed After July, 2015 to June 30, 2016.

April 4, 2016

On February 15, 2016 we posted IRS issues Final Form 8971 & Instructions on How To Report the Final Estate Tax Value of a Property Transfered to Beneficiaries , where we discussed that for many years the IRS has had a problem verifying the basis of assets received by an heir from an estate. Within the last three or four years, the IRS has required brokerage houses and banks to supply it with the cost basis so that it could determine that the capital gain or loss on securities was correctly calculated. 
 
The IRS has created a form 8971 along with the schedule A which requires anyone who must file a form 706 or form 706NA to compel the executor/personal representative/administrator to file this form 8971+ schedule A with the Internal Revenue Service. Each heir/beneficiary is to be supplied with a copy of schedule A to inform him of his basis in the assets inherited from the estate. This filing requirement is limited to estates which must file a 706 or 706NA. The upshot of this is that estate tax returns filed merely to achieve portability are exempt from this filing requirement. Such filing had to be made within 30 days of the filing of the estate tax return or, in the case of estate tax returns filed subsequent to July, 2015, by March 30, 2016. 
 

Now, however, the IRS is basically admitting that the form that it released is extremely flawed. The form is now being redrafted/clarified so that estate tax preparers will now have a reasonable idea of what needs to be done to prepare an accurate 8971.

In order to do this and realizing that the filing date was already past, the IRS extended the filing dates for forms 8971 on all estate tax returns filed after July, 2015, to June 30, 2016. Hopefully this will give the IRS the opportunity to draft a form that is comprehensible, free of errors, and relatively easy to file. It is not often that IRS admits that it's products are flawed; this change of date and redrafting of instructions is a tacit admission that the IRS tried to push this form onto the tax preparation world before the form was ready.

Once we see the new manifestation of the form plus instructions which should be out at some point in June, we will have a better idea the IRS accomplished its task.

Have a US Estate Tax Problem?

 


Estate Tax Problems Require
an Experienced Estate Tax Attorney
Contact the Tax Lawyers at
Marini & Associates, P.A.
 for a FREE Tax Consultation Contact US at
or Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243).
 
Robert S. Blumenfeld  - 
 Estate Tax Counsel

Mr. Blumenfeld concentrates his practice in the areas of International Tax and Estate Planning, Probate Law, and Representation of Resident and Non-Resident Aliens before the IRS.

Prior to joining Marini & Associates, P.A., he spent 32 years as the Senior Attorney with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Office of Deputy Commissioner, International.

While with the IRS, he examined approximately 2,000 Estate Tax Returns and litigated various international and tax issues associated with these returns.As a result of his experience, he has extensive knowledge of the issues associated with and the preparation of U.S. Estate Tax Returns for Resident and Non-Resident Aliens, Gift Tax Returns, Form 706QDT and Qualified Domestic Trusts.

 

 

Read more at: Tax Times blog

Why You Need An Experiance Tax Attorney To Successfully File a Petition to Quash an IRS Summons!

April 1, 2016

We previously posted Right to Challenge IRS Summonses Important With New IRS Audit Procedures! on June 19, 2014,where we discussed that the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Clarke, No. 13-301, reaffirming the right of a recipient of an IRS summons to challenge the summons by examining IRS officials in an adversarial proceeding. 

The impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in Clarke will be significant in light of a recent IRS directive (LB&I Control No: LB&I-04-0613-004), effective January 2014, which mandates that IRS examining officers issue a summons if a taxpayer fails to respond to an information document request (IDR) during the information gathering phase of an examination. (See our post: 2014 LB&I Information Document Request (IDR) Enforcement Process - Ready or Not?).

However, it's important to understand that you need an attorney, and preferably an Experiance Tax Attorney,
to successfully file a Petition to Quash an IRS summons!

Case in point Fisher v. U.S., which was f:               

Pro se taxpayer's petition to quash 3d party summons was dismissed based on her failures to prosecute, to follow F.R.Civ.P. and local court rules, and to comply with prior order to respond to govt.'s dismissal motion: although public policy generally favored decision on merits, dismissal was warranted here given taxpayer's delinquencies, risk of prejudice to govt., and public interest in judicial efficiency and prompt resolution of litigation. But, dismissal was without prejudice. (Fisher v. U.S., DC AZ, 114 AFTR 2d ¶2014-5241 ) 

Do You Have An IRS Summon
That Needs To Be Challenged? 

Contact the Tax Lawyers at 

Marini & Associates, P.A.  

 
for a FREE Tax Consultation
Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888) 882-9243

Read more at: Tax Times blog

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