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Norway signs FATCA Agreement with United States.

April 18, 2013

The Norwegian Ministry of Finance announced on April 15, 2013 the signing of an agreement with small t and will as he United States for an automatic exchange of financial information between the countries’ tax authorities, pursuant to the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

The agreement makes Norway the second Nordic nation to enact FATCA, after the Danish government signed a similar agreement in November 2012.

A memorandum of understanding states that the United States intends to treat Norwegian financial institutions as being in compliance with the FATCA rules.With the agreement, Norwegian financial institutions will not be subject to withholding tax, and the agreement will also facilitate the reporting obligation for Norwegian financial institutions, so that they report to the Norwegian tax authorities, who in turn will then pass on the information to U.S. authorities.

The agreement will enter into force upon an exchange of notes after the necessary procedures for its entry into force have been completed (in Norway, this requires the consent of the Parliament).

Are you a US Person with a Not So Secret Foreign Bank Account?
Having FATCA Problems?
 
Contact the Tax Lawyers at Marini & Associates, P.A.
for a FREE Tax Consultation at:
Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243).

Source

KPMG

 

Read more at: Tax Times blog

The Noose Tightens as Criminal Charges are brought against a Swiss Banker and a Swiss Attorney.

April 18, 2013

Authorities charged a Swiss banker and a Swiss attorney with helping American clients hide millions of dollars in offshore accounts to evade paying taxes.

The case is the latest in a string of prosecutions from the Justice Department aimed at curtailing offshore tax evasion services sold by Swiss and Swiss-style banks.

Stefan Buck and Edgar Paltzer were each charged with one count of conspiracy, an indictment filed in Manhattan federal court showed. It did not name the defendants' employers.

Buck is the head of private banking and a member of the executive board at "Swiss Bank No. 1," while Paltzer is a partner at a "Swiss Law Firm" and was admitted to the New York bar in 1988, according to the indictment.

Zurich-based Bank Frey lists Stefan Buck as its head of private banking and a member of its
executive board on its website.

The Swiss law firm Niederer Kraft & Frey lists Edgar Paltzer as a partner on its website, and New York state records show he was admitted to the New York bar in 1988.

According to the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office, which brought the charges, Buck's bank saw an increase of 300 percent in U.S. taxpayers as clients between the time of UBS's settlement and Wegelin's indictment in February 2012.

Around $938 million, or 44 percent, of the bank's $2.1 billion in managed assets as of September 2012 was held by U.S. taxpayers, prosecutors said.

Buck and Paltzer opened and managed undeclared accounts for U.S. clients who had been informed by other Swiss banks that they had to close their accounts there.

Both men reside in Switzerland, and neither has been arrested, prosecutors said.

Paltzer, a dual U.S.-Swiss citizen, is admitted to practice law in New York, authorities said.

The defendants each face fines and a maximum prison sentence of five years.

The case is U.S.A. v Paltzer and Buck, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 13-282.

Are you a US Person with a Not So Secret Foreign Bank Account?

Having FATCA Problems?Contact the Tax Lawyers at Marini & Associates, P.A.

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

Source:

Reuters

Read more at: Tax Times blog

Obama Budget Would Bring Parody To FATCA Information Exchange

April 17, 2013

The Obama fiscal year 2014 budget contains language that would require the United States to collect and exchange the same kinds of information under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) that the United States is seeking from other countries.

The Obama administration may soon ask Congress for the power to require more disclosure by U.S. banks of information about foreign clients' accounts to those clients' home governments, as part of a crackdown on tax evasion.

 
In a move facing resistance from some in the U.S. banking industry, two tax industry sources said the administration was considering asking Congress in an upcoming White House budget proposal for the authority to require more disclosure from U.S. banks.

As Treasury has implemented FATCA, some countries - possibly including France, Germany and China - were said to be driving a hard bargain. They have been saying that if their banks have to tell the IRS about Americans' secret accounts, then U.S. banks should have to reciprocate by disclosing more information about the U.S. accounts of French, German and Chinese nationals.

China has been publicly dismissive of FATCA, but it is talking with U.S. officials behind the scenes, sources said. "The People's Republic of China may be particularly interested in a reciprocal exchange of FATCA information," said Karl Egbert, a lawyer with law firm Dechert LLP in Hong Kong.

France and Germany "have been asking for something more like full reciprocity," said Jonathan Jackel, a lawyer with the law firm of Burt Staples & Maner LLP in Washington, D.C.

The United States already shares some taxpayer information with foreign countries with which it has a tax treaty or a formal information-sharing agreement.

The Treasury Department has acknowledged that more information sharing would be appropriate. The completed FATCA pacts include commitments "to pursue equivalent levels of reciprocal automatic exchange in the future," according to an October 2012 letter from Treasury Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Mark Mazur to members of Congress.

The IRS this year started disclosing to some foreign governments information about bank interest payments earned by their citizens with U.S. bank accounts. This has raised privacy concerns, particularly for Mexican nationals.

"The United States should be moving toward full reciprocity," said Georgetown Law School Professor Itai Grinberg, a former Treasury official, adding it would be "deeply hypocritical" of the United States to ask for U.S. taxpayer information "without offering some kind of reciprocity."

Are you a Non-US Person with a Secret US Bank Account? 
 

Are you a US Person with a Secret Foreign Bank Account?
 
Having FATCA Problems?
Contact the Tax Lawyers at Marini & Associates, P.A.
 
 
for a FREE Tax Consultation at:
Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243).

Source

Reuters

Read more at: Tax Times blog

The IRS Can Read Your Emails If It Wants.

April 17, 2013

If you've been swapping emails with your accountant about the best way to avoid paying taxes, be aware: The IRS says it has the right to go into your account and read them.

A report from the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out whether the IRS is reading your emails without a warrant.

A bit of background is necessary here. When it comes to getting a warrant to read your email, the relevant law is the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which was enacted way back in 1986. As you might expect, the law is a bit dated: According to the law, a government agency can read your email without a warrant as long as the email has been opened, or if it's been sitting in your inbox for more than 180 days. Only unopened email that's been on the server for less than 180 days requires a warrant.
aware: The IRS says it has the right to go into your account and read them.

It's exactly the kind of arbitrary distinction you might expect from a law written before email was widely used and understood. And accordingly, a Sixth Circuit appeals court ruled in 2010 that in fact, agencies needed to get a warrant before reading any emails, not just those that were new and unopened.

Before that decision, the IRS was certainly opening emails without warrants -- in fact, the ACLU got hold of an internal handbook claiming that the "the Fourth Amendment does not protect communications held in electronic storage."

The question, then, is whether those practices changed after the Sixth Circuit decision.

The ACLU is calling on the IRS to amend its procedures to bring them in line with the Fourth Amendment. In the meantime, just be aware that the taxman might sift through your inbox if he thinks you're holding something back.
 

Do you Have IRS 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).

 
Source: 
 
Daily Finance

Read more at: Tax Times blog

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