Recent Tax Updates From US Global Tax

OVDP is the traditional Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program. OVDP (formerly OVDI) has been in existence since 2009, and the IRS has accumulated more than $9 billion of money from taxpayers who have entered the program in order to safely get into compliance. However, since Trump came to power things have changed.

 

In March, 2018 the IRS sent a notification that the program will be ending, and as of now there is no new program to take its place The OVDP ‘Program’ terminated on September 28, 2018, and by that date, you should have at least submitted Phase 1 of the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure process. That does not mean just the preclearance letter, but rather the first phase of documentation, which typically includes certain designated forms such as a 14454 and 14457. Simply submitting a preclearance letter by the date above would presumably not be sufficient to enter OVDP.

 

If the IRS finds you before you have a chance to get into compliance, you may be hit with some very stiff penalties, as detailed below:

 

A penalty for failing to file FBARs. United States citizens, residents and certain other persons must annually report their direct or indirect financial interest in, or signature authority (or other authority that is comparable to signature authority) over, a financial account that is maintained with a financial institution located in a foreign country if, for any calendar year, the aggregate value of all foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the year.

 

In the recent year, the IRS has developed many different tax enforcement groups and a large number of them focus on international tax enforcement, so to find out more about US expat taxes, US tax specialists and taxing us please go to http://usglobaltax.com/ .