Eight IRS settlement options that could save your skin

I think we’ll have to be honest here. Tax settlement companies have a pretty bad rap. The reason? Perhaps they don’t know exactly what they are doing, perhaps they are ethically challenged, and perhaps they prey on people emotions with fear-based marketing instead of empowering taxpayers with real information.

Well, in this article we will go over Eight IRS settlement options you have to negotiate your IRS tax debt based upon what you can pay and based upon if the IRS assessed your tax correctly.

No matter which tax settlement option you chose, for the IRS to find favorably for you, you must package up your proposal nicely.

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A basic guide to understanding your 2013 FBAR filing requirements

Form TD F 90-22.1 Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, aka “The FBAR” is a complicated form with complicated instructions. Making the problem worse is that the penalties for failing to follow the 2013 FBAR filing requirements are severe. This article will discuss the basics –- the who, what, where, and when of FBAR Filing Requirements.

Get ready to kill some more trees. The 2013 FBAR filing deadline is around the corner on June 30th!

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What to expect in an FBAR Audit

The IRS has invested millions of dollars and has hired thousands of special auditors to conduct FBAR audits on US taxpayers that it suspects of not filing FBAR forms or filing incorrect FBAR forms. For taxpayers who haven’t filed FBARs or who have filed incorrect FBARs, the situation is daunting.

Not only are FBAR penalties not based on income but rather, calculated on the highest account balances. Additionally, the IRS and Department of Justice is seeking to make an example of those who haven’t filed FBAR correctly.

The good news, that if handled correctly, the risks of an FBAR audit can be diminished, allowing the IRS to move on to other targets.

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Why borrowing money, from a bank, your retirement, a rich uncle to pay off the IRS may be the worst idea.

Whenever you call the IRS about a past due tax bill, or a Revenue Officer makes “first contact” with you, one of the first things that an IRS employee will do is ask you, is that you pay your past due IRS tax bill in full. Once you tell them that you are  unable to pay your debt in full (and before they ask you if you want to pay it off with an installment agreement) the next thing they will ask you, is “can you borrow money to pay off the your tax bill?“

Well before you go ask for money from a bank, your parents or a rich uncle, first read this article on why borrowing money to pay the IRS off in full, in some circumstances, is the worst possible idea.

Before asking to borrow money for your rich uncle to pay off an IRS lien, read the rest of this article.

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Federal Tax Lien Relief

This has been a project that I have been finally able to complete. Our exclusive webinar on Federal Tax Lien Relief. here’s the promo for it on youtube.

And you can sign up right here for this exclusive Federal Tax Lien Relief webinar right here.

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Well, here it is, the TIGTA report we’ve all been waiting for.

We will be updating this post throughout the day with observations on the contents of the report and any developments in the story, so check back.

According to the report, IRS officials are willing to take the hit on this one, saying mea culpa (“my bad”):

“We asked the Acting Commissioner, Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division; the Director, EO; and Determinations Unit personnel if the criteria were influenced by any individual or organization outside the IRS. All of these officials stated that the criteria were not influenced by any individual or organization outside the IRS.”

We’ll see, I’m more interested to find out when “any individual or organization outside the IRS” knew it was going on.

GOP members of the Senate sent President Obama a letter yesterday asking for the Administration’s full co-operation.

UPDATE: MAY 16,2013, 3:30 PM

Washington Post reports that President Obama has appointed Daniel Werfel to serve as acting Director of the IRS, following the resignation of Steven Miller yesterday.

UPDATE: MAY 21, 2013, 5:30 PM

Washington Post reports that IRS official Lois Lerner will plead the fifth.

100 years of failure

COMMENTARY BY ANTHONY E. PARENT, ESQ.

Both privacy and income, property rights if you will, have been unconstitutionally attacked since passage the 16th Amendment, which was ratified in 1913.

“But the 16th Amendment is constitutional,” you say. “The courts said so,” you say.

Yes, but that is only that matter was decided by federal judges. Judges who — by the way — exempted themselves from the tax code.  That’s right, the federal judges who ruled the IRS can tax your income, felt that their own income should be off limits. Does this sound like a entity that has is impartial enough to decide the constitutionally of any income taxing structure?

(the Federal courts eventually did relent and agreed to be subject to income tax, but only after a few decades of humiliation) . 

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“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

Ecclesiastes 9:11 King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)

FBAR Amnesty for those who did nothing wrong

I thought of my good friend Ecclesiastes today, while reading a New York Times article, “Many Americans Abroad Surprised by Tax Code’s Nasty Bite.” I recalled my feeling that the above passage was incomplete. If my years in tax and criminal law have taught me anything, I would add just one more exclusionary caution: “nor punishment to the guiltiest.”

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Watch our FBAR Penalty & OVDI Webinar

Sign up for our FBAR Webinar here

Transcript of Video:

Are missing IRS FBAR forms freaking you out? Is the threat of massive FBAR penalties for you or your clients giving you anxiety? Are you unsure of what you need to do in order to avoid the wrath of the IRS? Then we have just the thing. Hi this is tax attorney Anthony Parent, managing partner of Parent & Parent LLP, the IRS Medic. Join me and the head of our firm’s offshore tax compliance department, attorney Amy Holbrook for our webinar – everything you never wanted to know about the IRS FBAR but must, simply by signing up in the box on the left. During this webinar you’ll find out how to reduce FBAR penalties, the history of the FBAR, you’ll know more about the FBAR form than 99% of IRS employees, the other kinds of FBARs to watch out for, how to know if you have to enter into one of the offshore voluntary disclosure programs or if there is a simpler way to handle the FBAR problem. The latest with FBAR litigation, if you are a tax payer the type of FBAR advice never to take and if you are an attorney or CPA the FBAR advice never to give.

Just give us your name and email and the webinar date and time you’d like to attend and I promise your information is kept confidential and is protected by the attorney-client privilege and I also promise never to slam your inbox with emails you don’t want.

We will open the floor to questions so this is your chance to ask your really tough FBAR questions anonymously. Our webinars are really popular and fill up quick so sign up right now and we hope to see you.

Burdening entrepreneurs and small businesses: Why a $1 Million exemption sounds reasonable, but isn’t.

BY: THOMAS S. GROTH, ESQ (@tsgESQ).

I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty specifics of this “Internet Sales Tax” proposal.  I’m still holding out hope that it never comes to fruition.  But I feel the need to respond to a few specific arguments I’ve seen floating around the internet claiming that the opposition to the proposal is overblown.

Argument #1: People are already required to pay use taxes, this just makes it easier for the government to actually collect the tax from consumers. 

So, the argument goes, a consumer is actually spending *less* by buying the same Macbook Pro at bestbuy.com. Because he’s going to pay his use taxes, right??

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