Good evening,
I just wanted an opinion, whether it was stupid or not, but at this point, we've had to fire our accounting firm that was doing our tax returns for OVDI since QD or noisy disclosure is not recommended. Seeing as we owe perhaps about $50-100 in tax across 8 years as we see it, we had to fire our accounting firm since they charged us $21,000 and only got 3 years worth of returns done and offer some review services as well, but in the past week, we were charged more than 8K in fees alone for those three years of tax returns out of 8. By the time they're done, we wouldn't have enough money to pay to the IRS in ODVI fines.
We paid our tax for 2012 and everything is currently on extension as per the advisement of our former accountants. Their reasoning was that everything for OVDI should be submitted as a package, thus if we filed our 2012 taxes which would contain F8891's for the first time, it would trigger disaster. Problem is, we're still months away from being done and we'd like to file our taxes and get on with life so we can work on this stuff at a reasonable pace rather than having it take over our lives.
Any thoughts on the danger that would be posed by filing 2012 taxes at this point? This whole thing is terrible, costly, and filled with fear-mongering "professionals". I realize that they aren't all that way, but many of them are.
Fired accounting firm tonight for OVDI
Moderator: Mark T Serbinski CA CPA
Pretty much all the so-called cross-border experts who set up shop in the last 2 years ARE indeed fear-mongering opportunists.
They didn't give a toss about their US citizen clients before (when they could have easily advised thenm on these simple matters. but when they smelled fear and saw dollar signs.
This site, and others have been warning about FBAR 8891, etc for over decade.
They didn't give a toss about their US citizen clients before (when they could have easily advised thenm on these simple matters. but when they smelled fear and saw dollar signs.
This site, and others have been warning about FBAR 8891, etc for over decade.
After 20 years, I am severely cutting back on responses. Do not ask specifically for my help. There are a few others on this board that can answer most questions. All the best
I am not sure why your accountant would have gone this route.
As you say, you owed 50 to 100 dollars of tax to the IRS over the last 8 years...well below the 1500 tax owing that the IRS would not allow you to go into the streamlined filing procedures.
With respect to the 8891's you now have to get a PLR in order to backfile these.
to answser part of your question, IMO it was smart to fire your Accountant...but it should have been done sooner rather than (a costly) later.
You are correct that QD or noisy disclosures were not recommended, but they were accepted..especially in the case of not owing tax to the USG.
In my situation, i did not owe any tax and just filed my 6 years of back returns (2 years ago). I suppose you can classify that as an ND, however I did follow up with a phone call to the IRS and everything was fine.
you say you have paid your 2012 tax and everything else is on extension, but then you identify in the next sentence that you have not filed for 2012 as of yet?
If it was me, and assuming you have not filed anything to this point, I would go into the IRS 'streamlined' filing procedure to get to compliancy (as you owe little or no tax), and get permission to file back 8891s.
You made no mention here of FBAR...you would have to backfile those as well...with a reasonable cause letter to avoid penalty.
Unless your tax situation is complicated, most of these forms(8938, FBAR etc) can be tabulated yourself.
As you say, you owed 50 to 100 dollars of tax to the IRS over the last 8 years...well below the 1500 tax owing that the IRS would not allow you to go into the streamlined filing procedures.
With respect to the 8891's you now have to get a PLR in order to backfile these.
to answser part of your question, IMO it was smart to fire your Accountant...but it should have been done sooner rather than (a costly) later.
You are correct that QD or noisy disclosures were not recommended, but they were accepted..especially in the case of not owing tax to the USG.
In my situation, i did not owe any tax and just filed my 6 years of back returns (2 years ago). I suppose you can classify that as an ND, however I did follow up with a phone call to the IRS and everything was fine.
you say you have paid your 2012 tax and everything else is on extension, but then you identify in the next sentence that you have not filed for 2012 as of yet?
If it was me, and assuming you have not filed anything to this point, I would go into the IRS 'streamlined' filing procedure to get to compliancy (as you owe little or no tax), and get permission to file back 8891s.
You made no mention here of FBAR...you would have to backfile those as well...with a reasonable cause letter to avoid penalty.
Unless your tax situation is complicated, most of these forms(8938, FBAR etc) can be tabulated yourself.