news & insights

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a non-profit organization whose mission is to protect the individual rights and liberties of individuals in the country, has reported that the IRS could be reading emails without a warrant. The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act request and reviewed 247 pages of IRS records to see if […]

According to the IRS on March 14, 2013, the IRS has $917 million for people who have not filed a 2009 income tax return. There are an estimated 984,400 taxpayers who did not file a federal tax return for 2009. The IRS also estimated that half the potential refunds for 2009 are more than $500. […]

On March 25th, the IRS announced the release of their annual compilation of facts and statistics in their 2012 Revenue Service Data Book for fiscal year 2012. This report reveals information about returns filed, taxes collected, enforcement actions, taxpayer assistance, and the IRS budget and workforce. According to the report, the IRS has collected close […]

IRS to get names of U.S. taxpayers banking with Wegelin & Co. through a Connecticut based correspondent account with UBS. On January 28, U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III signed an order in Manhattan federal court that authorized the IRS to serve a summons on UBS, the largest Swiss bank. The summons demanded that […]

Mary Estelle Curran, 79, pleaded guilty on January 8, 2013 to using foreign bank accounts to hide more than $42 million from the IRS. This is one of the largest cases in the continuing U.S. crackdown on offshore tax evasion. Federal authorities with the Justice Department said Curran failed to declare income from 2001-2007 when […]

Will my foreign real estate (property) be included in the calculation for the 27.5 OVDP FBAR penalty? One issue that comes up often is how foreign real estate effects how much our clients would owe under the 2012 IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (known as the 2012 OVDP or IRS amnesty for offshore bank accounts […]

The IRS launched its first offshore voluntary disclosure program in 2009. Since then, the program has been reintroduced in 2011 and again in 2012 following strong interest. The IRS has collected more $5 billion in back taxes, interest and penalties from over 33,000 taxpayers who have disclosed their offshore accounts under the first two programs. […]

Wegelin & Co, the oldest Swiss private bank, announced on January 3rd it would be closing after more than 2 ½ centuries. This closure is following its guilty plea to charges of helping Americans evade taxes through secret accounts. It is the first foreign bank to plead guilty to U.S. tax charges. The bank admitted […]

A wage garnishment is a legal procedure in which the IRS can collect your tax liability by having your current employer take a portion of your pay and send it to the IRS. This is a way for the IRS to collect taxes from you without you actually paying them. The IRS can seize salaries, […]

What is a tax levy? A tax levy is commonly referred to as an IRS levy or wage garnishment/wage levy. If you have unpaid taxes and have not cooperated with the demands of the IRS to make the payments, it is likely that you will receive a tax levy. This means the IRS will actually […]