We are talking about the Taxpayer Advocate Service's recommendations to simplify reporting under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. The TAS is an independent agency -- helmed by the National Taxpayer Advocate -- that monitors the activities of the IRS. The...
Bay Area Estate And Tax Planning Law Firm
Month: April 2015
If FATCA and FBAR regs combined, would the new regs be FATBAR?
Since the implementation of reporting rules under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, U.S. citizens living in foreign countries have found that some foreign banks are less than enthusiastic about taking them on as customers. It goes further than just refusing to...
Robin Williams estate dispute stems from ambiguous language
The late Robin Williams had an estate plan in place when he died last August, but it seems his plan was not clearly laid out enough to prevent a legal dispute after his death.Susan Schneider Williams, the third wife of the late actor, filed a petition back in December...
A detour down memory’s own memory lane
When former President Ronald Reagan died in 2004, the world was, for the most part, aware that he had suffered from Alzheimer's disease for years. Officially, his memory started to fail in the 1990s, long after he had left office. Unofficially -- at the time, at least...
Check your math, check your options before filing your return
Tomorrow is April 15. While we sincerely hope that no one spends the day in a panic and the evening in line at the post office or wrestling with tax prep software in a desperate attempt to make that midnight deadline, we know it will happen. We wonder, though, if it...
The IRS may have dibs on your tax refund in Chapter 7 bankruptcy
Imagine that you have been in dire financial straits. Your credit cards are maxed out, you are having trouble finding a job -- the time has come to talk about a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, your assets go to a trustee who then uses the money to pay...