USA; IRS: More $1,400 stimulus payments are coming — so check your mail

Another wave of $1,400 stimulus payments rolling out this week — and this time, many are coming as paper checks or pre-paid debit cards, the Internal Revenue Service announced Monday.

Read more at: IRS: More $1,400 stimulus payments are coming — so check your mail - MarketWatch

US Tax Collections: IRS Failed to Collect $2.4 Billion From Millionaires -

The Internal Revenue Service has failed to collect more than $2.4 billion dollars from wealthy individuals who owe the federal government back taxes, according to a Treasury Department watchdog report.

Auditors were only able to recoup about 39% of the more than $4 billion in unpaid taxes owed by a group of rich taxpayers with an average annual income of nearly $1.6 million, the report found. The findings suggest that the IRS should place more emphasis on a taxpayer’s income when determining whether to pursue an audit case, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said in the report released Monday.

Read More at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-15/irs-failed-to-collect-2-4-billion-in-taxes-from-millionaires?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosmarkets&stream=business&sref=0KUfhQHv

EU sides with Americans in Europe in fight against US tax schemes

For years the Accidental Americans Association (AAA) has battled to be exempt from a tax scheme imposed by the US requiring that all Americans file annual tax returns to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) - even when the person has not lived on US soil since they were a child.

In a letter addressed to US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, the EU Council - the union's main decision body - asked the US government to dilute costs for European residents who wish to renounce their American citizenship to avoid filing tax returns to the United States.

EU-Digest

FATCA adds layer of complexity, penalty exposure to offshore asset reporting - by Andrew M. Mattson, CPA

The acronym for the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act—FATCA—is easy to remember if one thinks of “fat cat.” Unfortunately, this may be the only thing about FATCA that is easy. This item highlights the provisions of FATCA that are most likely to affect US tax practitioners and their clients, the taxpayer reporting provisions of new Section 6038D of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC).

Since the enactment in 1970 of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), US citizens and residents have been required to report the existence of certain foreign bank and financial accounts. Such reportable accounts are disclosed on Treasury Department Form TD F 90-22.1, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR). The BSA is a part of Title 31 of the United States Code, meaning that it is not part of the US federal tax laws contained in the Internal Revenue Code. The FBAR has received a great deal of attention recently and has been the focus of three amnesty programmes by the IRS.

FATCA, on the other hand, is part of US Code Title 26, the Internal Revenue Code. FATCA requires reporting of a much broader range of offshore assets than a person is required to report on the FBAR. Unfortunately, FBAR and FATCA reporting is duplicative in many instances because filing an FBAR does not fulfill the filing obligation under FATCA, and vice versa. This duplicative reporting, along with the associated client education that needs to take place, represents one of the many challenges of FATCA for US tax practitioners.

Read more: FATCA adds layer of complexity, penalty exposure to offshore asset reporting