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We are circling back to our discussion of the Internal Revenue Service's recent memorandum clarifying (or attempting to clarify) how penalties are decided for foreign bank account reporting violations. In our June 17 post, we also warned that the June 30 deadline for...

It the thing nobody wants to get in the mail: a letter from the IRS informing the recipient that there is a problem with a previous income tax return. Whether the letter is announcing an audit, or asking for more information to explain an apparent discrepancy, it is...

The IRS takes its filing deadlines seriously, but the agency does not make it easy to remember the finer points of each due date. April 15, for example, is the deadline for filing income tax returns. By deadline, the IRS means that the return must be mailed by 11:59...

Most people know that once a year, they are required to submit documentation to the federal government as well as the state for their tax return. They also know that if they fail to report things properly, they could be audited by the IRS and suffer penalties as a...

In many circumstances, living trusts can help to avoid costly probate and reduce or eliminate the impact of federal estate taxes on your assets. A living trust can also replace the expensive, time consuming and restrictive process of appointing a conservator to handle...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...