Tax

U.S. Tax Court declines to consider US$160,000 passport revocation case, involving New York-resident American

The U.S. Tax Court in Washington last Thursday said it “lacked jurisdiction” and otherwise “could provide no… relief” to a New York resident who brought a legal challenge over the revocation of her American passport on grounds that she owed US$160,000 in “assessed penalties” to the IRS.

June 30, 2020
Tax
By Helen Burggraf

Now Monte Silver launches promised ‘copycat’ legal action in DC against TCJA’s GILTI provisions

Monte Silver, the American tax attorney resident in Israel who in January 2019 filed a still-ongoing lawsuit that challenges the so-called Transition Tax element of President Trump's 2017 tax reform legislation, has filed another lawsuit, also in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, over another aspect of the…

June 15, 2020
Tax
By Helen Burggraf

U.S. CARES Act stimulus payments ‘not taxable as income in UK’

Americans who are tax-resident in the UK, and who have recently received Economic Impact Payments from the U.S. government (or who receive them in the weeks and months ahead), will not have to pay tax to HMRC, London-based U.S. tax expert David Treitel says.

June 9, 2020
Tax
By Helen Burggraf

IRS begins using pre-paid debit cards to issue stimulus payments

The U.S. Treasury says it is beginning to send out many of the Economic Impact Payments to U.S. taxpayers who haven't yet received theirs in the form of pre-paid debit cards rather than by paper check.

May 19, 2020
Tax
By staff writer

Renounced U.S. citizens, foreign workers reported among those to receive CARES Act payments

As lawyers representing plaintiffs in a number of U.S. states prepare to bring legal challenges against the U.S. government and key government officials for denying certain American taxpayers the right to receive CARES Act "Economic Impact Payments" because they most recently have been filing their tax returns jointly with their…

May 14, 2020
Tax
By Helen Burggraf

Foreign Earned Income Exclusion podcast: Tax experts analyze the complex (and some say imperfect) FEIE

At first, the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion might seem a potentially useful tool indeed in the tax-paying toolbox of Americans who are resident overseas. After all, notes Toronto-based citizenship lawyer and American expat rights campaigner John Richardson, in his preface to a just-posted set of online podcasts on the FEIE,…

May 10, 2020
Tax
By staff writer

Now IRS grants extension of info deadline for FATCA Model 1 jurisdictions

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has announced that it is now pushing back the deadline for those in so-called Model 1 IGA FATCA jurisdictions to provide their FATCA data for the 2019 tax year to U.S. officials, in response to the global COVID-19 virus disruption.

April 21, 2020
Tax
By staff writer

Treasury, IRS unveil new guidance covering COVID-19-related travel disruptions

The U.S. Treasury and the IRS on Tuesday issued guidance that they said was aimed at providing "relief to individuals and businesses affected by travel disruptions arising from the COVID-19 emergency".

April 21, 2020
Tax
By staff writer

AARO webinar answers expats' questions about CARES Act payments

Questions about whether children who turned 18 in 2020, or who won't be born until August, would be considered "dependents" for the purposes of receiving a U.S. government CARES Act rebate check were among the highlights of a recent, hour-long webinar sponsored by the Association of Americans Resident Overseas.

April 20, 2020
Tax
By staff writer

Tax experts critical of, and/or baffled by, new IRS effort to exempt some foreign trusts from info reporting

Days after the IRS announced a new "revenue procedure" it said would "exempt from foreign trust information reporting requirements certain U.S. individuals' transactions with, and ownership of, certain tax-favored foreign trusts", some tax experts have been coming forward to express doubts about whether the new "procedure" would achieve much, if…

March 6, 2020
Tax
By Helen Burggraf

Meeting of accidental Americans with Dutch lawmakers in the Tweede Kamer, The Hague

Frozen bank accounts latest: Dutch MPs submit questions on 'accidental American' issues to Treasury officials

Dutch Parliamentarians have submitted a list of some 25 questions on the subject of "banks that, in response to the U.S. FATCA legislation, are refusing to provide services to Dutch nationals who also have American citizenship" to the country's treasury minister and deputy treasury minister, in the latest development in a…

February 22, 2020
Tax
By Helen Burggraf

More...

U.S. Treasury belatedly reveals 'regulatory reform' talks with EU

The U.S. Treasury this week revealed that it had met last Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington with representatives from a number of EU organizations, including the European Commission, European Banking Authority and the European Securities and Markets Authority, "to exchange views on financial regulatory developments". It said the meetings had…

February 21, 2020
Tax
By staff writer

IRS officials meet 'J5' counterparts in Sydney to discuss joint 'tax crime' enforcement

Top officials from the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation unit have been meeting this week in Sydney with their counterparts from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and United Kingdom to "review" and "set priorities" in their joint "fight against trans-national tax crime," the IRS has revealed.

February 20, 2020
Tax
By Helen Burggraf

Fresh from DC court triumph, tax lawyer Silver unveils plans for road trip

Weeks after a U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. ruled in his favor by denying a U.S. government effort to prevent him from legally challenging a key component of President Trump's December 2017 tax reform legislation, Tel Aviv-headquartered U.S. tax attorney Monte Silver has unveiled plans to undertake a global road trip,…

January 16, 2020
Tax
By staff writer

Acting National Taxpayer Advocate calls for IRS 'culture shift' as annual report released

In her 2019 Annual Report to Congress, acting National Taxpayer Advocate Bridget Roberts said the U.S. IRS needed to significantly raise its game with respect to the way it carries out its role as the nation's tax collecting agency. But to "truly transform the organization" – which, she noted in…

January 10, 2020
Tax
By Helen Burggraf

Tax