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We previously posted on December 1, 2016 Panama Papers - Global Effects Thus Far & Continuing Impact  where we discussed that on April 4, 2016 we initially posted Huge Leak From the Panamanian Law Firm Mossack Fonseca! discussing that the offshore planning world was set on fire with the news that 11 million documents were leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Then Fast-forward 8 months later to December 1, 2016 and the investigation has produced an almost daily drumbeat of regulatory moves, follow-up stories and calls by politicians and activists for more action to combat offshore financial secrecy and ICIJ recently posted Panama Papers Have Had Historic Global Effects — and the Impacts Keep Coming where they cover the following repercussions:

• At least 150 inquiries, audits or investigations into Panama Papers revelations have been announced in 79 countries around the world
• An estimated $135 billion was wiped off the value of nearly 400 companies after the Panama Papers
• Governments are investigating more than 6,500 taxpayers and companies, and have recouped at least $110 million so far in unpaid taxes or asset seizures
• Nine Mossack Fonseca offices have shuttered around the world, and the law firm has been fined close to half a million dollars.

Now the Panama Papers has taken a Human Toll!

“My mother was assassinated because she stood between the rule of law and those who sought to violate it, like many strong journalists,” Matthew Caruana Galizia, who is also an investigative reporter, wrote in a moving and at times graphic Facebook post.

“But she was also targeted because she was the only person doing so. This is what happens when the institutions of the state are incapacitated: the last person left standing is often a journalist. Which makes her the first person left dead.”
Dutch forensic experts and a team from the FBI were due to arrive in Malta to help police in the EU’s smallest state investigate the killing of Caruana Galizia, who led the Panama Papers investigation into corruption on the island.

Do You Have Undeclared Foreign Income? 

 

 

 

 

 

 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:

Private Wealth

The Guardian

 

 

Where you represent as many taxpayers as we do in relation to cleaning up their previously undeclared offshore investments and bank accounts, your are on the IRS' website daily to review the current elements required by the IRS to qualify for an OVDP filing or an OVDP streamline filing. (See www.OVDPLaw.com). 

You can imagine my surprise when my desktop link to each relevant IRS OVDP page, that I've been using for the last 8 years no longer worked.
 
The IRS has changed its entire website to be more user-friendly, with the goal of allowing individuals to access the IRS' website and handle their tax liabilities individually like they currently do with their bank account. This is described as IRS Future State.  We previously discussed this in our blog post Mid-Year National Tax Advocate's Report is Wary of IRS' “Future State.”

According to the IRS "Within our tight budget constraints, the IRS has also continued to analyze and develop plans for improving how the agency can fulfill its mission in the future... In requesting adequate resources to allow the IRS to improve taxpayer service, it is important to point out that our goal is not to fund today’s staff functions at historically high levels.

We need to be, and are, looking forward to a new, improved way of doing business that involves a more robust online taxpayer experience. This is driven, in part, by business imperatives; when it costs between $40 and $60 to interact with a taxpayer in person, and less than $1 to interact online, we must reexamine how we provide the best possible taxpayer experience, in response to taxpayer expectations and demands.

So where can you the Tax Advisor now find the necessary links to determine what the IRS' current requirements for OVDP filing or an OVDP streamline filing are, as well as the requirements for late filed information return?

Below we have provided the new links to the following replacement pages:

1. 2012 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program
2. Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program Submission Requirements
3. How to Make an Offshore Voluntary Disclosure
4. Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures
5. Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures and
6. Delinquent International Information Return Submission Procedures

Technical Positions taken at IRS Appeals or in Tax Court!

However, as a practice point, you should also remember to print out the current IRS screen describing the procedure which are undertaking for a particular client when making one of the above-mentioned filings. This way you can prove the list of IRS requirements at the time you made the filing, as these requirements are constantly changing, which will allow you to prove that you fulfilled the requirements at the time you filed on behalf of your client.

Do You or Your Client Have Undeclared Foreign Income?

 

 Want to Know if Which 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

 

The U.S. Department of the Treasury  posted on October 4, 2017 that it would amend or completely do away with eight tax regulations issued under the Obama administration, including rules regarding corporate debt and transfers of estates, as part of an effort to simplify the tax code.

Treasury also announced that it continues to work to identify additional regulations for modification or repeal by evaluating significant regulations issued recently and initiating a comprehensive review of all regulations, regardless of when they were issued.

 Which Will Begin in the Fourth Quarter of 2017.

  

• Regulations under Section 752 on Liabilities Recognized as Recourse Partnership Liabilities. Treasury and the IRS currently believe that the temporary regulations relating to disguised sales should be proposed for revocation and the prior regulations reinstated. Treasury and IRS will continue to study the issue and consider comments related to bottom-dollar guarantees.

The Treasury report identified the following regulations to consider for substantial revision:

• Temporary Regulations under Section 337(d) on Certain Transfers of Property to Regulated Investment Companies and Real Estate Investment Trusts. Treasury and the IRS plan to propose to replace the temporary regulations with revised regulations designed to narrow their application.
• Final Regulations under Section 367 on the Treatment of Certain Transfers of Property to Foreign Corporations. These regulations, which eliminate the ability to transfer certain property to foreign corporations without immediate or future U.S. tax, address issues that could also be addressed as Treasury continues to work with Congress on fundamental tax reform. In order to protect the U.S. tax base in the meantime, Treasury plans to continue to implement these regulations. However, Treasury and the IRS also plan to develop exceptions to the regulations. 
• Final Regulations under Section 987 on Income and Currency Gain or Loss With Respect to a Section 987 Qualified Business Unit. These regulations pertain to foreign currency translations and other foreign currency transactions, and Treasury plans to propose substantial revisions. Treasury plans to immediately announce relief allowing taxpayers to postpone the application of these rules.  Treasury plans to propose changes to further simplify the regulation, and also plans to consider more fundamental changes that might be implemented to address taxpayer concerns.  

The planned actions include revoking regulations under section 385 of the tax code that recharacterizes certain corporate debt as equity and replacing them with streamlined documentation rules and withdrawing proposed estate transfer rules under section 2704 intended to prevent the undervaluation of transferred interests in corporations and partnerships for estate tax purposes, according to the Treasury.

The eight regulations were initially flagged as in need of reform in a report issued in July.

In addition, later this year Treasury will begin repealing later more than 200 regulations that it has identified as adding to the burden of the tax code, the department said.

“This is only the beginning of our efforts to reduce the burden of tax regulations,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

Marini & Associates, P.A.

for a FREE Tax Consultation

Contact US atwww.TaxAid.com or www.OVDPLaw.com
or Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243). 

 

 

A priest for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose was sentenced to 36 months in prison, announced Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department’s Tax Division and U.S. Attorney Brian J. Stretch for the Northern District of California.

According to documents and information provided to the court, from 2008 through 2011, Hien Minh Nguyen stole money that his parishioners donated to the Diocese of San Jose through cash and checks made as offerings during religious services.  He deposited such checks into his personal bank account and used the funds for his benefit.  He also wrote checks drawn on church business accounts to pay for personal expenses.  Nguyen evaded paying income taxes on the money he stole, concealing his embezzlement from his return preparer. 

The court found that he embezzled $ 1,449,365 from the Catholic Church, and evaded $ 582,453 in individual income taxes that were due and owing to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  

In addition to the term of prison imposed, U.S. District Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman ordered Nguyen to serve three years of supervised release and to pay a total of $1,883,883 in restitution, including $434,518 to the IRS.  Nguyen previously pleaded guilty to tax evasion and was convicted of bank fraud following a bench trial. 

 

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).