Monthly Archives: March 2017

• significantly reduce marginal tax rates for both individuals and businesses,
• increase standard deduction amounts to nearly four times current levels,
• limit or repeal some tax expenditures,
• repeal the individual and corporate alternative minimum taxes and the estate and gift taxes, and
• tax the profits of foreign subsidiaries of US companies in the year they are earned.

So Where Does That Leave Tax Advisers?

 

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Fast-forward 4 Months and now according to Taxnotes 

Tax Reform Is 'Impossible' This Year." 

 

Warren Payne, a former House Ways and Means Committee policy director now with Mayer Brown LLP, believes that passing tax reform by August will be ‘‘impossible’’ this year. Rather, he suggested during a conference call March 16 that it is more likely to be addressed in early 2018. Payne pointed  to the border adjustment provisions in the House Republican tax reform blueprint, noting that they are both contentious as well as integral to the entire package. He speculated that the Trump administration will wait several weeks before offering a policy position on the border adjustable tax.

Payne contrasted the House Republican proposal for international tax reform with the Trump administration’s plan during the campaign, which proposed keeping a worldwide system in place and

ending deferral, suggesting that it remains unclear whether President Trump would support a move to a territorial-style system.

 

‘‘If the administration decides to forgo the border adjustment policy, it must either find alternative ways to broaden the tax base, settle for a higher corporate rate, or proceed with tax reform that is a  net tax cut,’’ Payne said. He explained that a border-adjustable tax could be a huge revenue boost, estimated to raise almost $1 trillion over 10 years that could be used to reduce rates and offer immediate expensing, and it would serve as a strong anti-tax base erosion measure. He added that the tax could account for about an 8-point reduction in the corporate income tax rate.

‘‘It takes months, not weeks,’’ to draft, debate, and pass tax reform legislation, Payne said.

 

House Republicans are struggling to round up the votes needed to move the AHCA, but John Buckley, a former chief tax counsel for House Ways and Means Democrats, said passing tax reform legislation will likely be even tougher.   ‘‘The political choices are going to be more difficult. There would be Organized Business Opposition on tax reform that you don’t see on healthcare reform.’’
 

Have a Tax Problem?

 

Contact the Tax Lawyers at

Marini & Associates, P.A.

 

 for a FREE Tax Consultation Contact US at 

www.TaxAid.com or www.OVDPLaw.com

or Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243).

 

 

The summons demands all records of Sovereign Management & Legal's clients (SML). The phrase 'John Doe' indicates that the US authorities do not know the clients' identities, but the summons applies to them irrespectively of that fact.

According to the US Department of Justice (DoJ), the company issued clients with prepaid debit cards called 'Sovereign Gold Cards' that enabled them to access the funds in the offshore accounts 'in such a manner as to evade their obligations under internal revenue laws'.

The accounts were opened by SML in the names of corporations that were owned by other entities such as fake charitable foundations, and held in the name of nominee officers provided by SML.

US District Court Judge Brian Morris found that there is a reasonable basis for believing that US taxpayers may be using Sovereign Gold Cards to violate federal tax laws.

These John Doe Summons may constitutes a public disclosure event that may prevent a taxpayer from entering an amnesty program such as the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) and the taxpayer will be subject to a 50% miscellaneous offshore penalty (instead of 27.5%).

Taxpayers that have issues related to these transactions should immediately seek the guidance of a tax advisor with significant experience in US international tax issues and voluntary disclosure practices. 
The utilization of the OVDP or the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures is the first line of defense against substantial civil penalties and criminal prosecution.

 

 Do You Have An Un-Reported Foreign Account? 

 

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.com or www.OVDPLaw.com

or Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888) 882-9243

 

Sources

• US Department of Justice

On December 14, 2016 we posted Trump's Anti-Union Drumbeat Could Be Trouble for the IRS  where we discussed that IRS employees could be in for a rocky ride if President-elect Donald Trump and Congress move forward with sweeping pledges to rein in federal employee benefits and cripple unions.

Now President Trump's America First, A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again cuts $239 million in IRS funding.

 

President Trump has released his 53-page “America First, A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again” a wish list of spending requests for Congress and some basic economic projections in which he lays out his plans for boosting military spending, and cutting foreign aid and an array of domestic programs. Among those cuts is a funding reduction of $239 million for IRS.

 

The President's 2018 Budget requests $12.1 billion in discretionary resources for the Department of the Treasury's domestic programs, a $519 million (or 4.1%) decrease from the 2017 annualized Continuing Resolution (CR) level. This program level excludes mandatory spending changes involving the Treasury Forfeiture Fund.

It promises to shrink the Federal workforce and increase its efficiency by redirecting resources away from duplicative policy offices to staff that manage the country's finances. Further, the Budget states that it will empower the Treasury Secretary, as Chairperson of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, to end taxpayer bailouts and foster economic growth by advancing financial regulatory reforms that promote market discipline and ensure the accountability of financial regulators.

IRS funding. The President's 2018 Treasury budget includes a $239 million funding reduction from the 2017 annualized CR level for IRS. It asserts that diverting resources from antiquated operations that are still reliant on paper-based review in the era of electronic tax filing would achieve significant savings.

The 2018 Budget “preserves key operations of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to ensure that the IRS could continue to combat identity theft, prevent fraud, and reduce the deficit through the effective enforcement and administration of tax laws.”

NO SURPRISE HERE! 

 

 Have a Tax Problem? 

 

 

 

Contact the Tax Lawyers at

Marini & Associates, P.A.

 

for a FREE Tax Consultation

at www.TaxAid.com or www.OVDPLaw.com

or Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243).