Asher Rubinstein will be speaking in an upcoming Strafford live webinar, “Streamlined Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program: Avoiding Aggressive Enforcement Regime and Significant Penalties” scheduled for Tuesday, June 2, 1:00pm-2:30pm EDT.
On Mar. 6, 2015, an IRS official stated that the IRS is preparing a renewed, more intensive crackdown on offshore tax evasion. Along with this heightened enforcement, the IRS has extended the streamlined filing compliance procedures indefinitely. Taxpayers should act quickly to take advantage of the less-punitive streamlined filing compliance procedures, including the Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures and the Delinquent International Information Return Submission Procedures (applying to, e.g., IRS Forms 5471 for “Controlled Foreign Corporations” [CFCs] and IRS Forms 3520 and 3520-A for foreign trusts).
Taxpayers, attorneys, CPAs and other advisors must understand the criteria as well as the process for submitting an application under these streamlined programs. The benefit of the streamlined programs is that qualifying taxpayers will incur reduced or no penalties from failure to file FBARs and/or to include offshore income on a U.S. tax return. A taxpayer may only qualify for the streamlined programs if the failure to file was non-willful or if the taxpayer had reasonable cause (in the case of the Delinquent International Information Return Submission Procedures). There are many indicia of willfulness, and the background facts of each case are important. A key element for determining whether a failure to file is willful is when the taxpayer learned of the filing requirements.
The IRS has stated that most of its upfront rejections of applications under the streamlined programs are due to the filing being insufficient or incorrect on its face. Taxpayers and their advisors must know how to properly complete and file for each of these streamlined programs in order to avoid an upfront rejection.
Our panel will provide participants with the tools necessary to navigate the IRS rules governing the extended 2014 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (2014 “OVDP”) to determine whether clients are eligible for the less arduous and punitive streamlined programs.
We will review these and other key issues:
- What are the new 2014 OVDP requirements?
- What are the new requirements for the streamlined programs? How may a taxpayer take advantage of the benefits of a streamlined program?
- What best practices should be used in determining if a taxpayer qualifies for one of the streamlined programs?
- How would a taxpayer demonstrate non-willfulness?
- What conduct constitutes “willful” non-reporting?
- What risks does an applicant in one of the Streamlined Programs face?
- What are some of the other methods used by taxpayers to become tax compliant with respect to undeclared offshore income and undeclared offshore financial accounts and assets, and what is the viability of these methods? Some of the methods that will be discussed include quiet disclosure, prospective compliance and expatriation.
After our presentations, we will engage in a live question and answer session with participants in order to answer your questions about these important issues directly about tax planning and other issues.
For more information or to register >
Or call 1-800-926-7926 ext. 10
Ask for Streamlined Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program on 6/2/2015
Mention code: XA1F22-UTO1A5