Florida Woman Pleads Guilty to Conspiring with Family to Hide from the IRS More than $90M In Offshore Bank Accounts

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As reported by the Department Of Justice (“DOJ”) in a press release issued March 10, 2025, Gilda Rosenberg, of Golden Beach, Florida pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the United States by, among other things, concealing tens of millions of dollars in undeclared foreign financial accounts, filing false tax returns, and evading taxes.

The DOJ stated that according to court documents and statements made in court, between 2010 and 2022, Rosenberg conspired with two family members to conceal from the IRS more than $90 million in assets and income held in undeclared bank accounts in Andorra, Israel, Panama and Switzerland.

Rosenberg’s family had maintained offshore accounts since the 1970s. By the late 1990s, Rosenberg — who was identified as an owner and an authorized signer on some of the accounts — knew that she and her family members had not disclosed their ownership of these foreign financial accounts to the U.S. government and that they had not paid any taxes on the income earned from the assets in those accounts as was required by law.

Starting in the early 2000s, the family consolidated their assets at accounts with Credit Suisse in Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Family members told Credit Suisse employees that they were U.S. persons and seeking to hide their assets from U.S. authorities. The assets remained at Credit Suisse until 2013, when Credit Suisse closed the accounts because the family members were U.S. persons.

When Credit Suisse closed their accounts, the family moved their assets, which were typically titled in the names of nominee entities, to new accounts located at Bank Leumi in Israel, Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) and PKB Privat Bank SA in Switzerland, and an Andorran bank. Rosenberg was documented as the beneficial owner of accounts at UBP and the Andorran bank. She also signed false account opening documents that claimed she was a Colombian resident and not a U.S. citizen.

Rosenberg, as well as her relatives, did not file Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR’s) disclosing their foreign financial accounts, as they were required to do. In addition, Rosenberg and her relatives continued to file false tax returns that omitted income generated by their offshore assets.

In or about 2017, as part of a scheme to continue to evade their U.S. tax and reporting obligations, Rosenberg and the family members divided the family’s assets and signed documents to make it appear that Rosenberg and a relative gifted the offshore assets to another relative after he had renounced his U.S. citizenship. Rosenberg and her relatives then tried to covertly transfer assets to Rosenberg in the United States and to conceal their ongoing and historical tax evasion. To do so, Rosenberg and her relatives, among other things, created fake loan and investment documents to make it appear that transfers to and from Rosenberg were loans and business investments.

From 2010 through 2017, Rosenberg filed false tax returns that did not report income she earned from assets in the account she concealed at UBP. For the 2009 through 2017 tax years, unreported income belonging to Rosenberg and two of her co-conspirators totaled more than $5.5 million, causing a tax loss of $1,927,342.

Rosenberg is scheduled to be sentenced on May 30, 2025. She faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison as well as a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The FBAR Penalty

The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) requires that a Form FinCEN 114 (formerly Form TDF 90-22.1), Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR), be filed if the aggregate balances of such foreign accounts exceed $10,000 at any time during the year. This form is used as part of the IRS’s enforcement initiative against abusive offshore transactions and attempts by U.S. persons to avoid taxes by hiding money offshore.

The penalties for FBAR noncompliance are stiffer than the civil tax penalties ordinarily imposed for delinquent taxes. A taxpayer who non-willfully fails to timely file an FBAR can be assessed a penalty of at least $10,000.00 per year of non-compliance. The IRS has taken the position that this non-willful penalty is assessed on an account-by-account basis. For example, a person whose failure to file an FBAR form is non-willful and has three accounts totaling $50,000 could potentially be assessed the maximum $10,000 penalty for each account, for a total of $30,000 per year, while a person with one account with a balance of $300,000 would pay only one $10,000 penalty per year.  Additionally, like Rosenberg, a noncompliant taxpayer can be looking at criminal prosecution.

What You Must Know About IRS FBAR Penalty Negotiations

  1. The penalties for noncompliance in FBAR enforcement are staggering.

FBAR penalties can be unfair as the penalties are based on the account size and not on how much tax you avoided. This is a stark contrast to other IRS penalties which are based on how much additional tax is owed.  Given this difference you will always have a bigger risk and more to lose when dealing with FBAR penalties.

  1. The two types of FBAR penalties.

The “get off gently FBAR penalty” – If the IRS feels that you made an innocent mistake and “not willfully” ignored to file your FBAR, your “get off gently penalty” will be $10,000 per overseas account per year not reported. To illustrate, if you have five foreign accounts that you failed to report on your FBAR in each of five years, the IRS can penalize you $50,000 per form (as supported by the Bittner and Kaufman cases) or $250,000 if imposed by account regardless of whether you even have that amount sitting in your foreign accounts.

The “disastrous FBAR penalty” – If the IRS can show that you “intentionally” avoided filing your FBAR’s, your minimum “disastrous FBAR penalty” will be 50% of your account value.   Additionally, the IRS may also press for criminal charges and if convicted of a willful violation, this can also lead to jail time. The “disastrous FBAR penalty” can also be assessed multiple times thus wiping out your entire savings.

Under both willful and non-willful penalties “the violation flows from the failure to file a timely and accurate FBAR.

  1. The taxpayer’s burden of proving “reasonable cause”

You are obligated to pay the penalty the IRS deems necessary. The IRS can assume the “disastrous FBAR penalty” and they are not required to prove willfulness. It will be the taxpayer that bears the heavy burden of proving that the taxpayer’s failure to comply was due to reasonable cause and not from “willful neglect.”

  1. Your appeal option.

Having exhausted all administrative remedies within the IRS first, you can then appeal the proposed FBAR penalties to a Federal District Court but for that court to have jurisdiction you must pay the assessments in full and then sue the IRS in a district court for refund. Since coming up with the money may be impossible for most taxpayers, consider hiring an experienced tax attorney to make the most of the IRS appeals process and perhaps avoid the need for litigation.  Keep in mind that in the appeals process, you do not have to pay any FBAR penalty until the end. Second, you can be successful if IRS remedies itself thus making court filings unnecessary. And third, even if the administrative remedies do not yield you success, your tax attorney can attempt to negotiate with the IRS to lower your FBAR penalties without going for a trial.

  1. The Voluntary Disclosure Route.

The streamlined filing compliance procedures are available to taxpayers certifying that their failure to report foreign financial assets and pay all tax due in respect of those assets did not result from willful conduct on their part. The streamlined procedures are designed to provide to taxpayers in such situations (1) a streamlined procedure for filing amended or delinquent returns and (2) terms for resolving their tax and penalty obligations.

Taxpayers will be required to certify that the failure to report all income, pay all tax, and submit all required information returns, including FBARs (FinCEN Form 114, previously Form TD F 90-22.1), was due to non-willful conduct.

If the IRS has initiated a civil examination of a taxpayer’s returns for any taxable year, regardless of whether the examination relates to undisclosed foreign financial assets, the taxpayer will not be eligible to use the streamlined procedures. Similarly, a taxpayer under criminal investigation by IRS Criminal Investigation is also ineligible to use the streamlined procedures.

Taxpayers eligible to use the streamlined procedures who have previously filed delinquent or amended returns to address U.S. tax and information reporting obligations with respect to foreign financial assets (so-called “quiet disclosures”) may still use the streamlined procedures.

What Should You Do?

If you have never reported your foreign investments on your U.S. Tax Returns, you should seriously consider making a voluntary disclosure to the IRS. Once the IRS contacts you, you cannot get into this program and would be subject to the maximum penalties (civil and criminal) under the tax law. The tax attorneys at the Law Offices Of Jeffrey B. Kahn, P.C. located in Orange County (Irvine), San Diego County (Carlsbad) and elsewhere in California are highly skilled in handling tax matters and can effectively represent at all levels with the IRS and State Tax Agencies including criminal tax investigations and attempted prosecutions, undisclosed foreign bank accounts and other foreign assets, and unreported foreign income. Also, if you are involved in cannabis, check out what a cannabis tax attorney can do for you.  And if you are involved in crypto currency, check out what a bitcoin tax attorney can do for you.

Court Authorizes IRS to Issue John Doe Summonses for Records Relating to U.S. Taxpayers with Offshore Bank Accounts With Trident Trust Group

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A number of U.S. taxpayers with beneficial ownership and control over funds held in accounts at Trident Trust Group and its affiliates (collectively, “Trident”), have admitted failing to report income earned from their offshore accounts on their federal tax returns.  The IRS has reason to believe that other U.S. taxpayers who held or presently hold similar accounts at Trident have done the same in violation of federal tax law.

On December 23, 2024, a U.S. District Judge in the Southern District of New York entered an order authorizing the IRS to issue summonses requiring FedEx Corporation; DHL Express (USA), Inc.; United Parcel Service, Inc.; the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; The Clearing House Payments Company LLC; HSBC Bank USA, National Association; The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation; Wells Fargo Bank, National Association; Citibank, National Association; UBS AG; Bank of America, National Association; Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas; and Nevis Services Limited, to produce information about U.S. taxpayers who may be evading or have evaded federal taxes by holding interests in undisclosed accounts at Trident.

The IRS uses John Doe summonses to obtain information about possible tax fraud by individuals whose identities are unknown.  The John Doe summonses direct the institutions named above to produce records identifying U.S. taxpayers with accounts at Trident.

The information that these institutions are required to turn over to the IRS will provide information about individuals using foreign financial institutions that include Switzerland, Caribbean countries, Hong Kong and beyond to avoid their U.S. tax obligations.  As the U.S. government is continuing its commitment to uncover and identify taxpayers who tried to hide money overseas as a way to avoid federal taxes, U.S. taxpayers still holding accounts who have not come clean should come forward and do the right thing before it is too late.

Federal tax law requires U.S. taxpayers to pay taxes on all income earned worldwide.  U.S. taxpayers must also report foreign financial accounts if the total value of the accounts exceeds $10,000 at any time during the calendar year.  Willful failure to report a foreign account can result in a fine of up to 50% of the amount in the account at the time of the violation and may even result in the IRS filing criminal charges.

If you have never reported your foreign investments on your U.S. Tax Returns, you should seriously consider participating in the IRS’s Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP).  Once the IRS contacts you, you cannot get into this program and would be subject to the maximum penalties (civil and criminal) under the tax law.  Taxpayers who hire an experienced tax attorney in Offshore Account Voluntary Disclosures should result in avoiding any pitfalls and gaining the maximum benefits conferred by this program.

What Should You Do?

Protect yourself from excessive fines and possible jail time. Federal and State Tax problems are usually a serious matter and must be handled appropriately so it’s important to that you’ve hired the best lawyer for your particular situation. The tax attorneys at the Law Offices Of Jeffrey B. Kahn, P.C. located in Orange County (Irvine), Los Angeles and elsewhere in California are highly skilled in handling tax matters and can effectively represent at all levels with the IRS and State Tax Agencies including criminal tax investigations and attempted prosecutions, undisclosed foreign bank accounts and other foreign assets, and unreported foreign income.  Also, if you are involved in cannabis, check out what our cannabis tax attorney can do for you.  Additionally, if you are involved in cryptocurrency, check out what a bitcoin tax attorney can do for you.

U.S. Supreme Court Provides Relief From FBAR Penalties – What You Must Know About IRS FBAR Penalty Negotiations

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U.S. Supreme Court Provides Relief From FBAR Penalties – What You Must Know About IRS FBAR Penalty Negotiations

In recent years the IRS has made the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) penalty enforcement a top priority and this is alarming the taxpayers worldwide. Even in the course of every routine domestic IRS audit, IRS agents are looking for undisclosed foreign bank accounts.

This is what happened to Alexandru Bittner, a Romanian–American dual citizen who was audited by IRS and failed to report his foreign accounts. Neither he nor the IRS has ever suggested that his failure to report funds held in foreign bank accounts was willful. Nevertheless, in calculating the “non-willful delinquent FBAR filing penalty”, IRS came up with $2.72 million and Mr. Bittner contended it should be $50,000.

This dispute was appealed up to the U.S. Supreme Court who issued its ruling on February 28, 2023 (See Bittner v. United States, U.S. Supreme Court No. 21-1195) concluded that the correct calculation of the “non-willful delinquent FBAR filing penalty” is $50,000.

The FBAR Penalty

The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) requires that a Form FinCEN 114 (formerly Form TDF 90-22.1), Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR), be filed if the aggregate balances of such foreign accounts exceed $10,000 at any time during the year. This form is used as part of the IRS’s enforcement initiative against abusive offshore transactions and attempts by U.S. persons to avoid taxes by hiding money offshore.

The penalties for FBAR noncompliance are stiffer than the civil tax penalties ordinarily imposed for delinquent taxes. A taxpayer who non-willfully fails to timely file an FBAR can be assessed a penalty of at least $10,000.00 per year of non-compliance. The IRS has taken the position that this non-willful penalty is assessed on an account-by-account basis. For example, a person whose failure to file an FBAR form is non-willful and has three accounts totaling $50,000 could potentially be assessed the maximum $10,000 penalty for each account, for a total of $30,000 per year, while a person with one account with a balance of $300,000 would pay only one $10,000 penalty per year.

Federal Court Applies FBAR Penalty Reduction

In two recent cases, Federal District Courts held that the $10,000 was assessed per form, not per account. See Bittner, 469 FSupp3d 709 (E.D. Tex./2020) and Kaufman, 2021 WL 83478 (Conn. 2021).

Bittner involved non-willful FBAR assessments totaling $2.72 million against the taxpayer for 2007 through 2011. Mr. Bittner is a Romanian-born naturalized U.S. citizen who returned to Romania in 1990, where he became a very successful businessman and had an interest in or signatory authority over more than 50 foreign accounts. He returned to the United States in 2011. Because he had not filed timely FBARs for 2007 through 2011, the IRS assessed the non-willful FBAR penalties. The Government sued to collect the penalties. The Government moved for partial summary judgment as to the penalty assessed for those accounts Bittner admitted to having a financial interest in. The non-willful penalties assessed for those accounts were $1.77 million. Bittner filed a cross-motion for partial summary judgment, claiming that no more than one $10,000 non-willful penalty can be assessed per annual form.

Kaufman, involved similar non-willful FBAR assessments as Bittner.  Mr. Kaufman is a U.S. citizen who has resided in Israel since 1979, where he had multiple financial accounts. His U.S. tax returns were prepared by an American accounting firm. Each year, the accountants would ask if he had any foreign accounts and would advise him that if he did, he may need to file FBAR forms. Each year he told his accountants he did not have any foreign accounts. When asked how he paid his bills, he claimed it was out of a U.S. brokerage account, so they checked the “no” box to the question on the return whether he had foreign accounts. Notwithstanding this evidence, Mr. Kaufman claimed he did not learn of the FBAR filing requirement until September 2011. He also claimed that he suffered a heart attack in late 2010 and was involved in an auto accident in 2011 and that these affected his cognitive abilities.

The Court analyzed the text of the FBAR statute (Code Sec. 5321(a)(5)(A)) recognizing that this provision provides for a penalty “on any person who violates, or causes any violation of, any provision of § 5314”. Query then, what is a “violation” of the statute?

The language of the willful penalty, which bases the amount of the penalty “in the case of a violation involving a failure to report the existence of an account or any identifying information required to be provided with respect to an account, the balance in the account at the time of the violation” seems to infer that Congress intended the willful penalty to be applied on an account-by-account basis.

However, the Court then looked at the language of the non-willful penalty and the reasonable cause exception. While the reasonable cause exception to the non-willful penalty was related to the “balance in the account,” the non-willful penalty itself did not contain any reference to “account” or “balance in the account.” The Court presumed that Congress acted intentionally when it drafted the non-willful penalty language without these references. Further, because the BSA aimed “to avoid burdening unreasonably a person making a transaction with a foreign financial agency,” an individual required to file an FBAR form was only required to file one report for each year. As a result, “it stands to reason that a ‘violation’ of the statute would attach directly to the obligation that the statute creates—the filing of a single report—rather than attaching to each individual foreign financial account maintained.” Additionally, no matter how many foreign accounts a person has, the requirement to file an FBAR is only triggered if the aggregate balance in the accounts is over $10,000. It thus made no sense “to impose per-account penalties for non-willful FBAR violations when the number of foreign financial accounts an individual maintains has no bearing whatsoever on that individual’s obligation to file an FBAR in the first place.”

The Court rejected the government’s arguments that since the reasonable cause exception relates to the “balance in the account” the penalty must apply per account and that since the willful penalty applies on a per-account basis, so must the non-willful penalty. While Congress may have had good reason to assess the willful penalty on a per-account basis, looking to the balance in the account to determine the applicability of the reasonable cause exception did not support the conclusion that Congress meant for the non-willful penalty to apply for a per-account basis given the statutory language.

And now that the U.S. Supreme Court has weighed in, it is clear that the non-willful penalty applied on a “per form basis”.

What You Must Know About IRS FBAR Penalty Negotiations

  1. The penalties for noncompliance in FBAR enforcement are staggering.

FBAR penalties can be unfair as the penalties are based on the account size and not on how much tax you avoided. This is a stark contrast to other IRS penalties which are based on how much additional tax is owed.  Given this difference you will always have a bigger risk and more to lose when dealing with FBAR penalties.

  1. The two types of FBAR penalties.

The “get off gently FBAR penalty” – If the IRS feels that you made an innocent mistake and “not willfully” ignored to file your FBAR, your “get off gently penalty” will be $10,000 per overseas account per year not reported. To illustrate, if you have five foreign accounts that you failed to report on your FBAR in each of five years, the IRS can penalize you $50,000 per form (as supported by the Bittner and Kaufman cases) or $250,000 if imposed by account regardless of whether you even have that amount sitting in your foreign accounts.

The “disastrous FBAR penalty” – If the IRS can show that you “intentionally” avoided filing your FBAR’s, your minimum “disastrous FBAR penalty” will be 50% of your account value.   Additionally, the IRS may also press for criminal charges and if convicted of a willful violation, this can also lead to jail time. The “disastrous FBAR penalty” can also be assessed multiple times thus wiping out your entire savings.

Under both willful and non-willful penalties “the violation flows from the failure to file a timely and accurate FBAR.

  1. The taxpayer’s burden of proving “reasonable cause”

You are obligated to pay the penalty the IRS deems necessary. The IRS can assume the “disastrous FBAR penalty” and they are not required to prove willfulness. It will be the taxpayer that bears the heavy burden of proving that the taxpayer’s failure to comply was due to reasonable cause and not from “willful neglect”.

  1. Your appeal option.

Having exhausted all administrative remedies within the IRS first, you can then appeal the proposed FBAR penalties to a Federal District Court but for that court to have jurisdiction you must pay the assessments in full and then sue the IRS in a district court for refund. Since coming up with the money may be impossible for most taxpayers, consider hiring an experienced tax attorney to make the most of the IRS appeals process and perhaps avoid the need for litigation.  Keep in mind that in the appeals process, you do not have to pay any FBAR penalty until the end. Second, you can be successful if IRS remedies itself thus making court filings unnecessary. And third, even if the administrative remedies do not yield you success, your tax attorney can attempt to negotiate with the IRS to lower your FBAR penalties without going for a trial.

  1. The Voluntary Disclosure Route.

The streamlined filing compliance procedures are available to taxpayers certifying that their failure to report foreign financial assets and pay all tax due in respect of those assets did not result from willful conduct on their part. The streamlined procedures are designed to provide to taxpayers in such situations (1) a streamlined procedure for filing amended or delinquent returns and (2) terms for resolving their tax and penalty obligations.

Taxpayers will be required to certify that the failure to report all income, pay all tax, and submit all required information returns, including FBARs (FinCEN Form 114, previously Form TD F 90-22.1), was due to non-willful conduct.

If the IRS has initiated a civil examination of a taxpayer’s returns for any taxable year, regardless of whether the examination relates to undisclosed foreign financial assets, the taxpayer will not be eligible to use the streamlined procedures. Similarly, a taxpayer under criminal investigation by IRS Criminal Investigation is also ineligible to use the streamlined procedures.

Taxpayers eligible to use the streamlined procedures who have previously filed delinquent or amended returns in an attempt to address U.S. tax and information reporting obligations with respect to foreign financial assets (so-called “quiet disclosures”) may still use the streamlined procedures.

What Should You Do?

If you have never reported your foreign investments on your U.S. Tax Returns, you should seriously consider making a voluntary disclosure to the IRS. Once the IRS contacts you, you cannot get into this program and would be subject to the maximum penalties (civil and criminal) under the tax law. The tax attorneys at the Law Offices Of Jeffrey B. Kahn, P.C. located in Orange County (Irvine), San Diego County (Carlsbad) and elsewhere in California are highly skilled in handling tax matters and can effectively represent at all levels with the IRS and State Tax Agencies including criminal tax investigations and attempted prosecutions, undisclosed foreign bank accounts and other foreign assets, and unreported foreign income. Also if you are involved in cannabis, check out what a cannabis tax attorney can do for you.  And if you are involved in crypto currency, check out what a bitcoin tax attorney can do for you.

U.S. Supreme Court To Weigh In On How FBAR Penalties Are Calculated

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U.S. Supreme Court To Weigh In On How FBAR Penalties Are Calculated

In recent years the IRS has made the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) penalty enforcement a top priority and this is alarming the taxpayers worldwide. Even in the course of every routine domestic IRS audit, IRS agents are looking for undisclosed foreign bank accounts. This action had led to two inconsistent ways of calculating the penalties for which the U.S. Supreme Court will take up to determine which one should be followed.

The FBAR Penalty

The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) requires that a Form FinCEN 114 (formerly Form TDF 90-22.1), Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR), be filed if the aggregate balances of such foreign accounts exceed $10,000 at any time during the year. This form is used as part of the IRS’s enforcement initiative against abusive offshore transactions and attempts by U.S. persons to avoid taxes by hiding money offshore.

The penalties for FBAR noncompliance are stiffer than the civil tax penalties ordinarily imposed for delinquent taxes. A taxpayer who non-willfully fails to timely file an FBAR can be assessed a penalty of at least $10,000 per year of non-compliance. The IRS has taken the position that this non-willful penalty is assessed on an account-by-account basis. For example, a person whose failure to file an FBAR form is non-willful and has three accounts totaling $50,000 could potentially be assessed the maximum $10,000 penalty for each account, for a total of $30,000 per year, while a person with one account with a balance of $300,000 would pay only one $10,000 penalty per year.

Split By Federal Courts On How To Calculate The FBAR Penalty

The 9th Circuit applied the FBAR penalty on a per form basis and not on the number of foreign accounts a person controls. Thus, if there was 5 years of delinquent FBAR’s, the FBAR penalty would be $10,000 per year or $50,000 total regardless of how many accounts or how much was in the accounts. United States v. Boyd, 991 F.3d 1077 (9th Cir. 2021).

The 5th Circuit applied the FBAR penalty on the number of foreign accounts a person controls.  Thus if there were 5 accounts in each year over 5 years of delinquent FBAR’s, the FBAR penalty would be $250,000. United States v. Bittner, 19 F.4th 734 (5th Cir. 2021) held that the non-willful FBAR penalty applies per account rather than per form.  The Fifth Circuit’s ruling in Bittner’s case reversed a lower court’s conclusion on how the non-willful penalty applies, increasing Bittner’s penalties to $2.72 million from $50,000.

Bittner appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court by filing a Writ Of Certiorari and the Supreme Court has agreed to hear this matter.  We will keep you informed of new developments.

What You Must Know About IRS FBAR Penalty Negotiations

  1. The penalties for noncompliance in FBAR enforcement are staggering.

FBAR penalties can be unfair as the penalties are based on the account size and not on how much tax you avoided. This is a stark contrast to other IRS penalties which are based on how much additional tax is owed.  Given this difference you will always have a bigger risk and more to lose when dealing with FBAR penalties.

  1. The two types of FBAR penalties.

The “get off gently FBAR penalty” – If the IRS feels that you made an innocent mistake and “not willfully” ignored to file your FBAR, your “get off gently penalty” will be $10,000 per overseas account per year not reported. To illustrate, if you have five foreign accounts that you failed to report on your FBAR in each of five years, the IRS can penalize you $50,000 per form (as supported by the Bittner and Kaufman cases) or $250,000 if imposed by account regardless of whether you even have that amount sitting in your foreign accounts.

The “disastrous FBAR penalty” – If the IRS can show that you “intentionally” avoided filing your FBAR’s, your minimum “disastrous FBAR penalty” will be 50% of your account value.   Additionally, the IRS may also press for criminal charges and if convicted of a willful violation, this can also lead to jail time. The “disastrous FBAR penalty” can also be assessed multiple times thus wiping out your entire savings.

Under both willful and non-willful penalties “the violation flows from the failure to file a timely and accurate FBAR”.

  1. The taxpayer’s burden of proving “reasonable cause”

You are obligated to pay the penalty the IRS deems necessary. The IRS can assume the “disastrous FBAR penalty” and they are not required to prove willfulness. It will be the taxpayer that bears the heavy burden of proving that the taxpayer’s failure to comply was due to reasonable cause and not from “willful neglect”.

  1. Your appeal option.

Having exhausted all administrative remedies within the IRS first, you can then appeal the proposed FBAR penalties to a Federal District Court but for that court to have jurisdiction you must pay the assessments in full and then sue the IRS in a district court for refund. Since coming up with the money may be impossible for most taxpayers, consider hiring an experienced tax attorney to make the most of the IRS appeals process and perhaps avoid the need for litigation.  Keep in mind that in the appeals process, you do not have to pay any FBAR penalty until the end. Second, you can be successful if IRS remedies itself thus making court filings unnecessary. And third, even if the administrative remedies do not yield you success, your tax attorney can attempt to negotiate with the IRS to lower your FBAR penalties without going for a trial.

  1. The Voluntary Disclosure Route.

The streamlined filing compliance procedures are available to taxpayers certifying that their failure to report foreign financial assets and pay all tax due in respect of those assets did not result from willful conduct on their part. The streamlined procedures are designed to provide to taxpayers in such situations (1) a streamlined procedure for filing amended or delinquent returns and (2) terms for resolving their tax and penalty obligations.

Taxpayers will be required to certify that the failure to report all income, pay all tax, and submit all required information returns, including FBARs (FinCEN Form 114, previously Form TD F 90-22.1), was due to non-willful conduct.

If the IRS has initiated a civil examination of a taxpayer’s returns for any taxable year, regardless of whether the examination relates to undisclosed foreign financial assets, the taxpayer will not be eligible to use the streamlined procedures. Similarly, a taxpayer under criminal investigation by IRS Criminal Investigation is also ineligible to use the streamlined procedures.

Taxpayers eligible to use the streamlined procedures who have previously filed delinquent or amended returns in an attempt to address U.S. tax and information reporting obligations with respect to foreign financial assets (so-called “quiet disclosures”) may still use the streamlined procedures.

What Should You Do?

If you have never reported your foreign investments on your U.S. Tax Returns, you should seriously consider making a voluntary disclosure to the IRS. Once the IRS contacts you, you cannot get into this program and would be subject to the maximum penalties (civil and criminal) under the tax law. The tax attorneys at the Law Offices Of Jeffrey B. Kahn, P.C. located in Orange County (Irvine), San Diego County (Carlsbad) and elsewhere in California are highly skilled in handling tax matters and can effectively represent at all levels with the IRS and State Tax Agencies including criminal tax investigations and attempted prosecutions, undisclosed foreign bank accounts and other foreign assets, and unreported foreign income. Also if you are involved in cannabis, check out what a cannabis tax attorney can do for you.  And if you are involved in crypto currency, check out what a bitcoin tax attorney can do for you.

Federal Court Provides Relief From FBAR Penalties – What You Must Know About IRS FBAR Penalty Negotiations

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Federal Court Provides Relief From FBAR Penalties – What You Must Know About IRS FBAR Penalty Negotiations

In recent years the IRS has made the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) penalty enforcement a top priority and this is alarming the taxpayers worldwide. Even in the course of every routine domestic IRS audit, IRS agents are looking for undisclosed foreign bank accounts.

The FBAR Penalty

The Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) requires that a Form FinCEN 114 (formerly Form TDF 90-22.1), Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR), be filed if the aggregate balances of such foreign accounts exceed $10,000 at any time during the year. This form is used as part of the IRS’s enforcement initiative against abusive offshore transactions and attempts by U.S. persons to avoid taxes by hiding money offshore.

The penalties for FBAR noncompliance are stiffer than the civil tax penalties ordinarily imposed for delinquent taxes. A taxpayer who non-willfully fails to timely file an FBAR can be assessed a penalty of at least $10,000.00 per year of non-compliance. The IRS has taken the position that this non-willful penalty is assessed on an account-by-account basis. For example, a person whose failure to file an FBAR form is non-willful and has three accounts totaling $50,000 could potentially be assessed the maximum $10,000 penalty for each account, for a total of $30,000 per year, while a person with one account with a balance of $300,000 would pay only one $10,000 penalty per year.

Federal Court Applies FBAR Penalty Reduction

In two recent cases, Federal District Courts held that the $10,000 was assessed per form, not per account. See Bittner, 469 FSupp3d 709 (E.D. Tex./2020) and Kaufman, 2021 WL 83478 (Conn. 2021).

Bittner involved non-willful FBAR assessments totaling $2.72 million against the taxpayer for 2007 through 2011. Mr. Bittner is a Romanian-born naturalized U.S. citizen who returned to Romania in 1990, where he became a very successful businessman and had an interest in or signatory authority over more than 50 foreign accounts. He returned to the United States in 2011. Because he had not filed timely FBARs for 2007 through 2011, the IRS assessed the non-willful FBAR penalties. The Government sued to collect the penalties. The Government moved for partial summary judgment as to the penalty assessed for those accounts Bittner admitted to having a financial interest in. The non-willful penalties assessed for those accounts were $1.77 million. Bittner filed a cross-motion for partial summary judgment, claiming that no more than one $10,000 non-willful penalty can be assessed per annual form.

Kaufman, involved similar non-willful FBAR assessments as Bittner.  Mr. Kaufman is a U.S. citizen who has resided in Israel since 1979, where he had multiple financial accounts. His U.S. tax returns were prepared by an American accounting firm. Each year, the accountants would ask if he had any foreign accounts and would advise him that if he did, he may need to file FBAR forms. Each year he told his accountants he did not have any foreign accounts. When asked how he paid his bills, he claimed it was out of a U.S. brokerage account, so they checked the “no” box to the question on the return whether he had foreign accounts. Notwithstanding this evidence, Mr. Kaufman claimed he did not learn of the FBAR filing requirement until September 2011. He also claimed that he suffered a heart attack in late 2010 and was involved in an auto accident in 2011 and that these affected his cognitive abilities.

The Court analyzed the text of the FBAR statute (Code Sec. 5321(a)(5)(A)) recognizing that this provision provides for a penalty “on any person who violates, or causes any violation of, any provision of § 5314”. Query then, what is a “violation” of the statute?

The language of the willful penalty, which bases the amount of the penalty “in the case of a violation involving a failure to report the existence of an account or any identifying information required to be provided with respect to an account, the balance in the account at the time of the violation” seems to infer that Congress intended the willful penalty to be applied on an account-by-account basis.

However, the Court then looked at the language of the non-willful penalty and the reasonable cause exception. While the reasonable cause exception to the non-willful penalty was related to the “balance in the account,” the non-willful penalty itself did not contain any reference to “account” or “balance in the account.” The Court presumed that Congress acted intentionally when it drafted the non-willful penalty language without these references. Further, because the BSA aimed “to avoid burdening unreasonably a person making a transaction with a foreign financial agency,” an individual required to file an FBAR form was only required to file one report for each year. As a result, “it stands to reason that a ‘violation’ of the statute would attach directly to the obligation that the statute creates—the filing of a single report—rather than attaching to each individual foreign financial account maintained.” Additionally, no matter how many foreign accounts a person has, the requirement to file an FBAR is only triggered if the aggregate balance in the accounts is over $10,000. It thus made no sense “to impose per-account penalties for non-willful FBAR violations when the number of foreign financial accounts an individual maintains has no bearing whatsoever on that individual’s obligation to file an FBAR in the first place.”

The Court rejected the government’s arguments that since the reasonable cause exception relates to the “balance in the account” the penalty must apply per account and that since the willful penalty applies on a per-account basis, so must the non-willful penalty. While Congress may have had good reason to assess the willful penalty on a per-account basis, looking to the balance in the account to determine the applicability of the reasonable cause exception did not support the conclusion that Congress meant for the non-willful penalty to apply for a per-account basis given the statutory language.

What You Must Know About IRS FBAR Penalty Negotiations

  1. The penalties for noncompliance in FBAR enforcement are staggering.

FBAR penalties can be unfair as the penalties are based on the account size and not on how much tax you avoided. This is a stark contrast to other IRS penalties which are based on how much additional tax is owed.  Given this difference you will always have a bigger risk and more to lose when dealing with FBAR penalties.

  1. The two types of FBAR penalties.

The “get off gently FBAR penalty” – If the IRS feels that you made an innocent mistake and “not willfully” ignored to file your FBAR, your “get off gently penalty” will be $10,000 per overseas account per year not reported. To illustrate, if you have five foreign accounts that you failed to report on your FBAR in each of five years, the IRS can penalize you $50,000 per form (as supported by the Bittner and Kaufman cases) or $250,000 if imposed by account regardless of whether you even have that amount sitting in your foreign accounts.

The “disastrous FBAR penalty” – If the IRS can show that you “intentionally” avoided filing your FBAR’s, your minimum “disastrous FBAR penalty” will be 50% of your account value.   Additionally, the IRS may also press for criminal charges and if convicted of a willful violation, this can also lead to jail time. The “disastrous FBAR penalty” can also be assessed multiple times thus wiping out your entire savings.

Under both willful and non-willful penalties “the violation flows from the failure to file a timely and accurate FBAR.

  1. The taxpayer’s burden of proving “reasonable cause”

You are obligated to pay the penalty the IRS deems necessary. The IRS can assume the “disastrous FBAR penalty” and they are not required to prove willfulness. It will be the taxpayer that bears the heavy burden of proving that the taxpayer’s failure to comply was due to reasonable cause and not from “willful neglect”.

  1. Your appeal option.

Having exhausted all administrative remedies within the IRS first, you can then appeal the proposed FBAR penalties to a Federal District Court but for that court to have jurisdiction you must pay the assessments in full and then sue the IRS in a district court for refund. Since coming up with the money may be impossible for most taxpayers, consider hiring an experienced tax attorney to make the most of the IRS appeals process and perhaps avoid the need for litigation.  Keep in mind that in the appeals process, you do not have to pay any FBAR penalty until the end. Second, you can be successful if IRS remedies itself thus making court filings unnecessary. And third, even if the administrative remedies do not yield you success, your tax attorney can attempt to negotiate with the IRS to lower your FBAR penalties without going for a trial.

  1. The Voluntary DisclosureRoute.

The streamlined filing compliance procedures are available to taxpayers certifying that their failure to report foreign financial assets and pay all tax due in respect of those assets did not result from willful conduct on their part. The streamlined procedures are designed to provide to taxpayers in such situations (1) a streamlined procedure for filing amended or delinquent returns and (2) terms for resolving their tax and penalty obligations.

Taxpayers will be required to certify that the failure to report all income, pay all tax, and submit all required information returns, including FBARs (FinCEN Form 114, previously Form TD F 90-22.1), was due to non-willful conduct.

If the IRS has initiated a civil examination of a taxpayer’s returns for any taxable year, regardless of whether the examination relates to undisclosed foreign financial assets, the taxpayer will not be eligible to use the streamlined procedures. Similarly, a taxpayer under criminal investigation by IRS Criminal Investigation is also ineligible to use the streamlined procedures.

Taxpayers eligible to use the streamlined procedures who have previously filed delinquent or amended returns in an attempt to address U.S. tax and information reporting obligations with respect to foreign financial assets (so-called “quiet disclosures”) may still use the streamlined procedures.

What Should You Do?

If you have never reported your foreign investments on your U.S. Tax Returns, you should seriously consider making a voluntary disclosure to the IRS. Once the IRS contacts you, you cannot get into this program and would be subject to the maximum penalties (civil and criminal) under the tax law. The tax attorneys at the Law Offices Of Jeffrey B. Kahn, P.C. located in Orange County (Irvine), San Diego County (Carlsbad) and elsewhere in California are highly skilled in handling tax matters and can effectively represent at all levels with the IRS and State Tax Agencies including criminal tax investigations and attempted prosecutions, undisclosed foreign bank accounts and other foreign assets, and unreported foreign income. Also if you are involved in cannabis, check out what a cannabis tax attorney can do for you.  And if you are involved in crypto currency, check out what a bitcoin tax attorney can do for you.

Businessman Indicted For Not Reporting Foreign Bank Accounts And Filing False Documents With The IRS

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Businessman Indicted For Not Reporting Foreign Bank Accounts And Filing False Documents With The IRS

In recent years the IRS has made the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) penalty enforcement a top priority and this is alarming the taxpayers worldwide. Even in the course of every routine domestic IRS audit, IRS agents are looking for undisclosed foreign bank accounts.

On March 3, 2021 the Department Of Justice (DOJ) issued a press release of a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, returning an indictment, charging a Virginia man with failing to file Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR’s) and filing false documents with the IRS.

Indictment Details

According to the indictment, Azizur Rahman of Herndon, Virginia, had a financial interest in and signature authority over more than 20 foreign financial accounts, including accounts held in Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Singapore, and Bangladesh. From 2010 through 2016, he allegedly did not disclose his interest in all of his financial accounts on annual FBARs, as required by law. Mr. Rahman also allegedly filed false individual tax returns for the tax years 2010 through 2016 that did not report to the IRS all of his foreign bank accounts and income.

Mr. Rahman is also charged with filing a false “Streamlined Submission” in conjunction with the IRS Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures. Those procedures allowed eligible taxpayers residing within the United States, who failed to report gross income from foreign financial accounts on prior tax returns, failed to pay taxes on that gross income, or who failed to submit an FBAR disclosing foreign financial accounts, to voluntarily disclose their conduct to the IRS and to pay a reduced penalty if their conduct was non-willful. The indictment alleges that Mr. Rahman’s Streamlined Submission did not truthfully disclose all the foreign bank accounts in which he had an interest, and falsely claimed that his failure to report all income, pay all tax, and submit all required information returns, such as FBARs, was non-willful.

If convicted, Mr. Rahman faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison for each of the counts related to filing false tax documents. He also faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each count relating to his failure to file an FBAR or filing a false FBAR.

The legal proceedings are expected to be conducted by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

What You Must Know About IRS FBAR Penalty Negotiations

  1. The penalties for noncompliance in FBAR enforcement are staggering.

FBAR penalties can be unfair as the penalties are based on the account size and not on how much tax you avoided. This is a stark contrast to other IRS penalties which are based on how much additional tax is owed.  Given this difference you will always have a bigger risk and more to lose when dealing with FBAR penalties.

  1. The two types of FBAR penalties.

The “get off gently FBAR penalty” – If the IRS feels that you made an innocent mistake and “not willfully” ignored to file your FBAR, your “get off gently penalty” will be $10,000 per overseas account per year not reported. To illustrate, if you have five foreign accounts that you failed to report on your FBAR in each of five years, the IRS can penalize you $250,000 regardless of whether you even have that amount sitting in your foreign accounts.

The “disastrous FBAR penalty” – If the IRS can show that you “intentionally” avoided filing your FBAR’s, your minimum “disastrous FBAR penalty” will be 50% of your account value.   Additionally, the IRS may also press for criminal charges and if convicted of a willful violation, this can also lead to jail time. The “disastrous FBAR penalty” can also be assessed multiple times thus wiping out your entire savings.

  1. The taxpayer’s burden of proving “reasonable cause”

You are obligated to pay the penalty the IRS deems necessary. The IRS can assume the “disastrous FBAR penalty” and they are not required to prove willfulness. It will be the taxpayer that bears the heavy burden of proving that the taxpayer’s failure to comply was due to reasonable cause and not from “willful neglect”.

  1. Your appeal option.

Having exhausted all administrative remedies within the IRS first, you can then appeal the proposed FBAR penalties to a Federal District Court but for that court to have jurisdiction you must pay the assessments in full and then sue the IRS in a district court for refund. Since coming up with the money may be impossible for most taxpayers, consider hiring an experienced tax attorney to make the most of the IRS appeals process and perhaps avoid the need for litigation.  Keep in mind that in the appeals process, you do not have to pay any FBAR penalty until the end. Second, you can be successful if IRS remedies itself thus making court filings unnecessary. And third, even if the administrative remedies do not yield you success, your tax attorney can attempt to negotiate with the IRS to lower your FBAR penalties without going for a trial.

  1. The Voluntary Disclosure Route.

The streamlined filing compliance procedures are available to taxpayers certifying that their failure to report foreign financial assets and pay all tax due in respect of those assets did not result from willful conduct on their part. The streamlined procedures are designed to provide to taxpayers in such situations (1) a streamlined procedure for filing amended or delinquent returns and (2) terms for resolving their tax and penalty obligations.

Taxpayers will be required to certify that the failure to report all income, pay all tax, and submit all required information returns, including FBARs (FinCEN Form 114, previously Form TD F 90-22.1), was due to non-willful conduct.

If the IRS has initiated a civil examination of a taxpayer’s returns for any taxable year, regardless of whether the examination relates to undisclosed foreign financial assets, the taxpayer will not be eligible to use the streamlined procedures. Similarly, a taxpayer under criminal investigation by IRS Criminal Investigation is also ineligible to use the streamlined procedures.

Taxpayers eligible to use the streamlined procedures who have previously filed delinquent or amended returns in an attempt to address U.S. tax and information reporting obligations with respect to foreign financial assets (so-called “quiet disclosures”) may still use the streamlined procedures.

What Should You Do?

If you have never reported your foreign investments on your U.S. Tax Returns, you should seriously consider making a voluntary disclosure to the IRS. Once the IRS contacts you, you cannot get into this program and would be subject to the maximum penalties (civil and criminal) under the tax law. The tax attorneys at the Law Offices Of Jeffrey B. Kahn, P.C. located in Orange County (Irvine), San Diego County (Carlsbad) and elsewhere in California are highly skilled in handling tax matters and can effectively represent at all levels with the IRS and State Tax Agencies including criminal tax investigations and attempted prosecutions, undisclosed foreign bank accounts and other foreign assets, and unreported foreign income. Also if you are involved in cannabis, check out what a cannabis tax attorney can do for you.  And if you are involved in crypto currency, check out what a bitcoin tax attorney can do for you.

Remainder For U.S. Taxpayers – Income from Abroad is Taxable

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Federal Court Of Appeals For The Third Circuit Clarifies Standard for Proving a “Willful” FBAR Violation

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Federal Court Of Appeals For The Third Circuit Clarifies Standard for Proving a “Willful” FBAR Violation

Not much has come out of the Courts defining that line between nonwillful and willful when it comes to not filing Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts Reports (“FBAR”) but now we have a recent U.S. Federal Circuit Of Appeals case out of the Third District which has vast repercussions on anyone who has undisclosed foreign bank accounts regardless of whether they came forward in a Voluntary Disclosure Program or the Streamlined Procedures.

Bedrosian v. U.S.

In December 2018 the Federal Circuit Court Of Appeals for the Third District (the “Appeals Court”), Bedrosian v. U.S., 2018 PTC 427 (3rd Cir. 2018), on an appeal by the IRS issued its opinion determining that the taxpayer’s failure to timely file an FBAR was nonwillful. The tax law provides that U.S. citizens with accounts outside the U.S. must disclose those accounts on an FBAR if the aggregate amount is at least $10,000. 31 U.S.C. 5314. The reason the term “willful” is important is that if the failure is not willful, the penalty is set at $10,000 per violation but if the failure to disclose is considered “willful”, the penalty goes up to the greater of $100,000 or 50% of the highest account value for the year.

In the case of Arthur Bedrosian the IRS in January 2015 assessed a willful FBAR penalty for tax year 2007 of approximately $975,000, which was 50% of the undisclosed account. Mr. Bedrosian paid 1% of the penalty and then sued in Federal District Court to recover the payment as an unlawful exaction. The government counterclaimed for the full penalty amount plus interest and a late payment penalty.

Facts

Mr. Bedrosian worked in the pharmaceutical industry eventually rising to the level of CEO at Lannett Company, Inc., a company that manufactures generic medications. He had to travel abroad for business and so for convenience by 1973 had established a bank account with Swiss Credit Corporation in Switzerland (now UBS) by which he could access funds instead of paying for expenses with traveler’s checks. Eventually he started using it as a savings account and in 2005 he was approached by the bank representatives who offered him 750,000 Swiss Francs if he converts his account into an investment account. Mr. Bedrosian agreed and as a result of this transaction, another account was created under his name.

It was not until tax year 2007 that Mr. Bedrosian included, for the first time, an affirmative answer to the question on his Form 1040 Schedule B asking whether “[a]t any time during 2007, [he had] an interest in or signature or other authority over a financial account in a foreign country.” He listed Switzerland as the country. He also filed an FBAR for the first time in which he reported the existence of one of the two UBS accounts.

The IRS notified Mr. Bedrosian in April 2011 that it would be auditing his returns and he was cooperative and forthcoming in his dealings with the IRS. In the results of the audit, the IRS assessed a willful FBAR penalty for tax year 2007 of just under $1 million.

When the case was first heard by the Federal District Court, the only disputed issue was whether Mr. Bedrosian’s failure to disclose his $2 million UBS account was willful. In that case as reported in Bedrosian v. U.S., 2017 PTC 431 (E.D. Pa. 2017), the district court concluded that the IRS had failed to establish Mr. Bedrosian’s willfulness. The government appealed to the Third Circuit, arguing that the district court used an incorrect legal standard for willfulness, placed too much weight on Mr. Bedrosian’s subjective motivations, and erred in finding that Mr. Bedrosian did not know he owned a second foreign bank account.

Court’s Analysis

The Court Of Appeals stated that to prove a “willful” violation with respect to the filing of an FBAR, the IRS must satisfy the civil willfulness standard, which includes both knowing and reckless conduct.

In its analysis of “willfulness,” the court considered the taxpayers’ behaviors in U.S. v. Williams, 489 Fed. Appx. 655 (4th Cir. 2012), and U.S. v. McBride, 908 F. Supp. 2d 1186 (D. Utah 2012). The court noted that unlike those taxpayers, who continued to submit inaccurate FBARs even after being targets of government investigation, or who repeatedly lied and refused to produce requested documents, Mr. Bedrosian was cooperative with the IRS during the audit process.

Upon the IRS’ urging to consider “willfulness” outside of the FBAR context, the court also reviewed Greenberg vs. U.S., 46 F.3d 239 (3d Cir. 1994). There the court had considered whether a party had willfully failed to pay certain employer withholding taxes. It was determined that willfulness depended on the individual’s knowledge that his company had not paid the taxes at the time he paid company funds to the employees and other suppliers.

Although the court here agreed that Mr. Bedrosian should have been more careful about reviewing the 2007 FBAR and in being aware of the fact that he had not one but two accounts at UBS, the court determined that it was not apparent that he submitted it knowing that it omitted the second UBS account.

Significantly, the court summarized that the only evidence supporting a finding that Mr. Bedrosian’s violation was “willful” was: (1) the inaccurate form itself, lacking reference to the second account, (2) the fact that he may have learned of the second account’s existence at one of his meetings with a UBS representative, (3) his sophistication as a businessman, and (4) his accountant’s statement to him in the mid-1990s that he was breaking the law. The court concluded that “none of these indicate ‘conduct meant to conceal or mislead’ or a ‘conscious effort to avoid learning about reporting requirements,’ even if they may show negligence”.

Accordingly the Third Circuit then remanded the case for the district court affirming that Mr. Bedrosian did not act willfully in failing to disclose the second UBS account in his 2007 FBAR filing.

What Should You Do?

Taxpayers who have entered into the Streamlined Program whose case is weak on showing nonwilfullness have a huge risk of being picked by IRS and losing the favorable status offered by the Streamlined Procedures where the IRS feels that the non-willful standard is not met.  Such taxpayers will not then be able to enter into a voluntary disclosure program and can face the same battle as Mr. Bedrosian.  Likewise, anyone who has not come forward in voluntary disclosure and the issue of nonwilfullness is questionable would still have the opportunity to come forward under a voluntary disclosure program.  Keep in mind that any submission must be complete or else like Mr. Bedrosian, the IRS will reject the settlement and look to assess the full penalties provided by law. Let the tax attorneys at the Law Offices Of Jeffrey B. Kahn, P.C. located in Orange County (Irvine), San Francisco Bay Area (including San Jose and Walnut Creek) and offices elsewhere in California get you set up with a plan that may include being qualified into a voluntary disclosure program to avoid criminal prosecution, seek abatement of penalties, and minimize your tax liability. Also, if you are involved in cannabis, check out how our cannabis tax attorneys can help you.

It’s Deja-vu For UBS – A French Court Rejects UBS’ Request To Drop Financial Charges

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Another Leak Of Taxpayers Allegedly Involved In Hiding Assets Offshore – What You Need To Know About The “Paradise Papers”

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A compilation based on more than 13.4 million documents dated from 1950 to 2016, uncovers a large number of global corporations, government leaders, and prominent people and their use of offshore accounts to avoid taxes or otherwise hide ownership of assets.

On November 5, 2017 the International Consortium Of Investigative Journalists released what is now dubbed the “Paradise Papers”.  The reporting is similar to the Panama Papers, which in 2016 exposed cases involving celebrities and business executives who reportedly moved large chunks of their wealth into offshore tax havens.  The source of documents in the Panama Papers came from 11 million documents secured from the Panamanian law firm of Mossack Fonseca.  The Paradise Papers is even more extensive as it is based on more than 13.4 million documents dated from 1950 to 2016 from Bermuda including the Appleby Law Firm and the Asiaciti Trust Company.

Several members of Trump’s inner circle, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, were mentioned in the Paradise Papers.  Now while it’s not necessarily illegal to distribute wealth across secret companies, which can be used by the super wealthy as legitimate forms of holding their wealth, shell companies can be used to evade taxes and disguise illegal behavior. Also just because someone is mentioned in the Paradise Papers, it doesn’t necessarily mean their business holdings are illegal or they did anything illegal. Unfortunately, when one is mixed in with a basket of bad apples, you know how people will tend to judge the whole harvest.

Nevertheless, this leak is another huge hit the offshore world has taken. The Panama Papers included connections to families and associates of Syrian President Bashar Assad, former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The Panama Papers also confirmed that associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin have funneled as much as $2 billion through offshore accounts, banks and shadow companies.  Some well-known celebrities were also identified in the Panama Papers that include Jackie Chan, Micheline Roquebrune and Lionel Messi.

So as government tax officials start reading the Paradise Papers, you can expect in the coming months that many new names will come out that the IRS will be interested in targeting.

Filing Requirements If You Have Foreign Accounts

By law, many U.S. taxpayers with foreign accounts exceeding certain thresholds must file Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, known as the “FBAR.” It is filed electronically with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

Taxpayers with an interest in, or signature or other authority over, foreign financial accounts whose aggregate value exceeded $10,000 at any time during a calendar year must file FBARs. It is due by the due date of your Form 1040 and must be filed electronically through the BSA E-Filing System website.

Generally, U.S. citizens, resident aliens and certain non-resident aliens must report specified foreign financial assets on Form 8938 if the aggregate value of those assets exceeds certain thresholds. Reporting thresholds vary based on whether a taxpayer files a joint income tax return or lives abroad. The lowest reporting threshold for Form 8938 is $50,000 but varies by taxpayer.

By law, Americans living abroad, as well as many non-U.S. citizens, must file a U.S. income tax return. In addition, key tax benefits, such as the foreign earned income exclusion, are only available to those who file U.S. returns.

The law requires U.S. citizens and resident aliens to report worldwide income, including income from foreign trusts and foreign bank and securities accounts. In most cases, affected taxpayers need to complete and attach Schedule B to their tax return. Part III of Schedule B asks about the existence of foreign accounts, such as bank and securities accounts, and usually requires U.S. citizens to report the country in which each account is located.

Penalties for non-compliance.
Civil Fraud – If your failure to file is due to fraud, the penalty is 15% for each month or part of a month that your return is late, up to a maximum of 75%.

Criminal Fraud – Any person who willfully attempts in any manner to evade or defeat any tax under the Internal Revenue Code or the payment thereof is, in addition to other penalties provided by law, guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, can be fined not more than $100,000 ($500,000 in the case of a corporation), or imprisoned not more than five years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution (Code Sec. 7201).

The term “willfully” has been interpreted to require a specific intent to violate the law (U.S. v. Pomponio, 429 U.S. 10 (1976)). The term “willfulness” is defined as the voluntary, intentional violation of a known legal duty (Cheek v. U.S., 498 U.S. 192 (1991)).

Additionally, the penalties for FBAR noncompliance are stiffer than the civil tax penalties ordinarily imposed for delinquent taxes. For non-willful violations it is $10,000.00 per account per year going back as far as six years. For willful violations the penalties for noncompliance which the government may impose include a fine of not more than $500,000 and imprisonment of not more than five years, for failure to file a report, supply information, and for filing a false or fraudulent report.

Lastly, failing to file Form 8938 when required could result in a $10,000 penalty, with an additional penalty up to $50,000 for continued failure to file after IRS notification. A 40% penalty on any understatement of tax attributable to non-disclosed assets can also be imposed.

The Solution.

The IRS has special programs for taxpayers to come forward to disclose unreported foreign accounts and unreported foreign income. The main program is called the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP). OVDP offers taxpayers with undisclosed income from offshore accounts an opportunity to get current with their tax returns and information reporting obligations. The program encourages taxpayers to voluntarily disclose foreign accounts now rather than risk detection by the IRS at a later date and face more severe penalties and possible criminal prosecution.

For taxpayers who willfully did not comply with the U.S. tax laws, we recommend going into the 2014 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP). Under this program, you can get immunity from criminal prosecution and the one-time penalty is 27.5% of the highest aggregate value of your foreign income producing asset holdings.

For taxpayers who were non-willful, we recommend going into the Streamlined Procedures of OVDP. Under these procedures the penalty rate is 5% and if you are a foreign person, that penalty can be waived. This is a very popular program and we have had much success qualifying taxpayers and demonstrating to the IRS that their non-compliance was not willful.

What Should You Do?

Don’t delay because if the government finds out about you first, you could be in the same hot water as Rex Tillerson and Gary Cohn.  Taxpayers who hire an experienced tax attorney in Offshore Account Voluntary Disclosures should result in avoiding any pitfalls and gaining the maximum benefits conferred by this program. Let the tax attorneys of the Law Offices Of Jeffrey B. Kahn, P.C. located in Orange County, San Francisco and other California locations resolve your IRS tax problems, get you in compliance with your FBAR filing obligations, and minimize the chance of any criminal investigation or imposition of civil penalties.