“He supports corporate tax reform that would reduce expenditures and loopholes, lower rates for people investing and creating jobs in the U.S., due so further for manufacturing, and that we need to, as we have the Buffett Rule and the individual tax reform, we need a global minimum tax so that people have the assurance that nobody is escaping doing their fair share as part of a race to the bottom or having our tax code actually subsidized and facilitate people moving their funds to tax havens,” Sperling said.

Wegelin & Co. is accused of helping at least 100 U.S. clients conceal huge sums of money from the IRS in overseas accounts. Federal prosecutors said the bank recruited American customers who were concerned about possible prosecution for tax violations at home, including some that had already pulled money out of other Swiss banks because of growing pressure from U.S. law enforcement. Three of the bank’s client advisers were indicted in January. The bank was added as a defendant in the case on Feb. 2

Certain U.S. taxpayers holding specified foreign financial assets with an aggregate value exceeding $50,000 will report information about those assets on new Form 8938, which must be attached to the taxpayer’s annual income tax return.  Higher asset thresholds apply to U.S. taxpayers who file a joint tax return or who reside abroad (see below).

Form 8938 reporting applies for specified foreign financial assets in which the taxpayer has an interest in taxable years starting after March 18, 2010.  For most individual taxpayers, this means they will start filing Form 8938 with their 2011 income tax return to be filed this coming tax filing season.

Upon issuance of regulations, FATCA may require reporting by specified domestic entities.  For now, only specified individuals are required to file Form 8938.

• If you do not have to file an income tax return for the tax year, you do not need to file Form 8938, even if the value of your specified foreign assets is more than the appropriate reporting threshold.
• If you are required to file Form 8938, you do not have to report financial accounts maintained by:
  • a U.S. payer (such as a U.S. domestic financial institution),
  • the foreign branch of a U.S. financial institution, or
  • the U.S. branch of a foreign financial institution.

Refer to Form 8938 instructions for more information on assets that do not have to be reported.

You must file Form 8938 if:

1. You are a specified individual. 

A specified individual is:

• A U.S. citizen
• A resident alien of the United States for any part of the tax year (see Pub. 519 for more information)
• A nonresident alien who makes an election to be treated as resident alien for purposes of filing a joint income tax return
• A nonresident alien who is a bona fide resident of American Samoa or Puerto Rico (See Pub. 570 for definition of a bona fide resident)

AND

2. You have an interest in specified foreign financial assets required to be reported. 

A specified foreign financial asset is:

• Any financial account maintained by a foreign financial institution, except as indicated above
• Other foreign financial assets held for investment that are not in an account maintained by a US or foreign financial institution, namely:
  • Stock or securities issued by someone other than a U.S. person
  • Any interest in a foreign entity, and
  • Any financial instrument or contract that has as an issuer or counterparty that is other than a U.S. person.

Refer to the Form 8938 instructions for more information on the definition of a specified foreign financial assets and when you have an interest in such an asset.

AND

3. The aggregate value of your specified foreign financial assets is more than the reporting thresholds that applies to you:

• Unmarried taxpayers living in the US: The total value of your specified foreign financial assets is more than $50,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $75,000 at any time during the tax year
• Married taxpayers filing a joint income tax return and living in the US: The total value of your specified foreign financial assets is more than $100,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $150,000 at any time during the tax year
• Married taxpayers filing separate income tax returns and living in the US: The total value of your specified foreign financial assets is more than $50,000 on the last day of the tax year or more than $75,000 at any time during the tax year.
• Taxpayers living abroad.  You are a taxpayer living abroad if: 
  • You are a U.S. citizen whose tax home is in a foreign country and you are either a bona fide resident of a foreign country or countries for an uninterrupted period that includes the entire tax year, or
  • You are a US citizen or resident, who during a period of 12 consecutive months ending in the tax year is physically present in a foreign country or countries at least 330 days.

If you are a taxpayer living abroad you must file if:

Refer to the Form 8938 instructions for information on how to determine the total value of your specified foreign financial assets.

Reporting specified foreign financial assets on other forms filed with the IRS.

If you are required to file a Form 8938 and you have a specified foreign financial asset reported on Form 3520, Form 3520-A, Form 5471, Form 8621, Form 8865, or Form 8891, you do not need to report the asset on Form 8938.  However, you must identify on Part IV of your Form 8938 which and how many of these form(s) report the specified foreign financial assets.

Even if a specified foreign financial asset is reported on a form listed above, you must still include the value of the asset in determining whether the aggregate value of your specified foreign financial assets is more then the reporting threshold that applies to you.

No, this was what the Toronto Globe and Mail says is believed to be the first-ever American-citizenship renunciation ceremony, and 22 American exports were quietly “sworn out” en masse that October day, the Canadian press has learned and is reporting.

U.S. and Swiss officials are concluding negotiations on a civil settlement amid U.S. criminal probes of 11 financial institutions, including Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN), suspected of helping American clients hide money from the Internal Revenue Service, according to five people with knowledge of the talks who declined to speak publicly because they are confidential.

John Guarini (gwah-REE’-nee) entered his plea Tuesday in Newark federal court.

The 62-year-old was among 44 people arrested in July 2009 in New Jersey’s largest corruption case.

Guarini admitted he accepted $20,000 cash from Solomon Dwek, who posed as a crooked developer looking to have permits expedited.

Surowiecki and others have attributed many of Greece’s financial woes to its huge untaxed shadow economy, which is estimated to be more than a quarter of its GDP (In the U.S., just 9% of our GDP is in the dark.) Greece has come up with interesting, technological ways to find tax evaders, including looking at satellite images to see how many people were lying about having home pools. While 324 people in one area had reported having a pool on their tax forms, almost 17,000 homes in that area in fact had water-filled holes in the ground in their backyards when viewed from above. (Thanks, Google Maps!)

The tax authorities began to suspect Judge Dan Mor, who was appointed a senior judge in the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court in April 2010, was possibly evading taxes after a random audit was conducted into his son’s tax returns.

That audit revealed that from 2000-2007, revenue from a rental property owned by Mor was reported as his son’s income, despite the fact that the income had been Mor’s.

As a result of Mor’s son reporting the income, Mor’s own taxes were reduced by NIS 211,000.