Serbinski Accounting Firms

Find this from IRS website: http://www.irs.gov/irb/2012-08_IRB/ar10.html C. Special rule for foreign estates and foreign trusts A beneficial interest in a foreign trust or a foreign estate is not a specified foreign financial asset of a specified person unless the specified person knows or has reaso...

I am not a beneficiary of a trust. It is a house. My grandma owned it. One of my uncle lives in it right now. When my grandma passed away, she left a WILL that all the property under her name will be shared by my uncle, my aunt my mother and me( I was her favorit grand daughter) My uncle disagree wi...

The 40% accuracy seems to apply to the tax you owe for the unreported asset instead of the value of the asset. AccuracyRelated Penalty If you underpay your tax as a result of a transaction involving an undisclosed specified foreign financial asset, you may have to pay a penalty equal to 40 percent o...

Thank you very much mach. I heard the same thing from the hotline last year after almost 1.5 hours on the line waiting. They just gave some new form with limited instruction and announce they will make huge ($10k is huge to me) penalty if you don't file them 100% accurate. What a torture! Besides th...

For example, just the regular credit card with some percent of cash back when you make purchase. The cash back points accumulated and card company pay them once the cash back amount exceeds the max value. It seems this type of cash back is not treated as income to IRS. I have canceled all my canadia...

or for some cash back credit card, you paid off the credit card balance for the month, and the credit card company pay back the "cash back" points which makes the balance become positive?

If for example, you over paid the credit card for 50$, the balance become positive?

By the way, is the $10k 8938 penalty apply to per account failed to report or the whole?

If I have a credit card issued by TD canada trust and my total foreign asset (most of them are RRSPs) exceeds the threshold, do I need to include this canadian credit card on my 8938?

If I forget to report the credit card, for how long could IRS come back to me? Three years?

Thank you so much for the detailed explaination.

I really appreciate all the help and think you are a very nice person and very skillful with these difficult question. Thanks for being so kind to me. (I would ignore the part that you think my question is silly :-) )

Does "shrug" mean "I don't know" or "either way is fine"?

or "stop bothering me with your silly question"?

Hi Nelsona, Still have question about this issue. Just want to confirm the answer with you: In the previous post, I asked if a FIFO rule could be used for the stock shared purchased while I lived in canada: your answer is "It is upto you, however (a) you need to use the cost basis in US dollars...

It is the OVDI set the penalty to be 25% or 27.5% of the whole foreign account balance instead of the 25% or 27.5% of the tax owe. Which for most minnow, the money in the account are clean money that paid the tax already. IRS internal guide line also suggest a warning letter might be more proper tha...

I am not sure now. If knew there is this risk to our immigration status(or even more risky since I gave all the documents which might be used against me) as the cost of stepping up and being honest, I might just silently close all the accounts and be compliance from now on instead of jump in this OV...

I am greencard holder live in U.S.

I made mistake with my foreign accounts due to poor tax knowledge.

I participant the OVDI to clean it up since IRS suggest that is the only right way to make it right.

However, I found in the media, people in the OVDI are marked as "tax evader", or "cheater" who file false tax return. (We are also be treated like this way in the program).

IRS promise there will be no criminal prosecution if stay in the OVDI,

However, a person could be a "tax evader" even no prosecution or convict to the crime.

Tax evader is a deportable according to INS.

Also, Supreme Court Decides that Filing a False Tax Return (causing revenue loss to the Government exceeds $10,000. ) for Resident Aliens is an “Aggravated Felonyâ€￾ (as murder or rape) that Prompts Deportation Proceedings with no right of deport relief.

My question is: for green card holder like us who participant in the OVDI, does it means we put the knife into the INS hand to let them kill at their wish?

Given the tax owe over the past years are aggregated and interests are accumulated, plus the 20% accuracy penalty. The total amount could be very easily exceed 10k.

Since there is no trial in the court which would carefully review the case and determin how much indeed the lost is caused by "willingful cheating".

Would the INS just blindly pick the number on OVDI 906 form and use it as a judgement document to deport innocent people even after they paid back the tax and the heavenly FBAR penalty?

Please see the links below:

http://taxattorneynews.moskowitzllp.com ... ncome.aspx

thanks a lot!