FBAR Due in One Week

Posted on June 23, 2015 by Russ

The Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (Form 114, the FBAR) is due on June 30th. The form must be electronically filed with FINCEN. Your tax professional may be able to do it through his software (we can) or you can do it yourself using the BSA EFile system. There is now an online form you can use (besides Adobe reader) that may work better (it certainly can’t work worse).

Because of the Hom decision of last year, we now must again report foreign online gambling accounts. That’s basically all online gambling sites except the legal sites in Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey. I maintain a list of online gambling sites and their mailing addresses here.

There are ridiculous penalties if you willfully fail to file an FBAR (half the balance in the account or $100,000 (per account), whichever is greater). Thus, as I said last year, just file the FBAR…timely.

Posted in Gambling, International | Tagged | 1 Comment

Arbitrage Is Legal, But You Better Pay the Taxes

Posted on June 21, 2015 by Russ

Let’s say you are 100% certain that the price of a certain article will increase from $0.20 to $0.62 in a few weeks. Can you purchase a stock of that at $0.20 each and then sell them later at $0.62? If there are no laws against it, certainly. Of course, the $0.42 profit is taxable. That last line allegedly was forgotten by a Tennessee legislator.

Joseph (Joe) Armstrong is a member of the Tennessee legislature. He wanted to increase the state’s tobacco tax from $0.20 to $0.60 (per pack of cigarettes). Was he interested in the health of the residents of the Volunteer State? Perhaps. According to the indictment handed down last week, he was really interested in the health of his bank balance.

The Justice Department alleges that he entered into a conspiracy to profit from the increase in the cost of a tobacco stamp. Buy low, sell high is great, but as a legislator you’re not supposed to profit off of it. (Though Mr. Armstrong wanted a tripling of the price, the tax increase ended up being $0.42 per pack to a tax of $0.62.) Mr. Armstrong got a loan, bought lots of tax stamps at the old rate, and then sold them at the high rate. He used a nominee business (through his accountant) to hide the profits. His accountant got 15% of the profits.

(The accountant made a plea deal in July 2014 that was unsealed earlier this year. Charles Stivers, a CPA, was Mr. Armstrong’s accountant. As a reminder to the IRS, a license doesn’t make a person immune to deficiencies in ethics.)

The Justice Department alleges that Mr. Armstrong wanted to both have his after-tax income equal his pre-tax income from the scheme (always a good, albeit, illegal option) and he wanted to hide this from his wife. He is also being charged with lying to the IRS about his activities.

Mr. Armstrong pleaded not guilty to all charges on Friday. If found guilty, Mr. Armstrong will likely be residing at ClubFed.

Posted in Tax Evasion, Tennessee | 1 Comment

Form 8300 and Poker

Posted on June 17, 2015 by Russ

I’ve posted before on staking, but someone asked me the following question:

I’m a professional [poker player] and am going to be staked for the High Roller One Drop Tournament [a $111,111 buy-in tournament]. I’m going to be handed the cash to enter the tournament. What do I need to do?

Besides the normal staking issues (see these articles), there’s another issue: cash reporting. If you’re a business and you receive a payment of $10,000 or more in cash or like funds (this would include casino chips but would not include a cashier’s check), you have a reporting requirement: You must file Form 8300 with the IRS.

A professional poker player is operating a business and is required to comply with the laws impacting businesses. This includes cash reporting requirements. You have 15 days from the date of the cash transaction to report it. This is done by either mailing Form 8300 to the IRS or by filing it electronically through the BSA efile website. Note that if you use the BSA efile system you will have to register (required for Form 8300 efiling).

Like most penalties related to the Bank Secrecy Act, the penalties are on the ridiculous side. While the Failure to File penalty is just $100, the Intentional Failure to File penalty is the greater of $25,000 or the amount of the cash transaction (to a maximum of $100,000).

The IRS does take questions regarding Form 8300. You can call the IRS at 866-270-0733 or email questions to 8300questions@irs.gov

Posted in Gambling, IRS | 1 Comment

June 15th Tax Deadlines

Posted on June 15, 2015 by Russ

There are two deadlines today. First, individuals outside the United States must make file their tax returns (or an extension) today. Second, today is the due date for second quarter estimated payments (both for individuals and corporations). These are both postmark deadlines, so as long as your estimated payment is posted today (and I strongly recommend certified mail, return receipt requested so you have proof), it’s considered timely.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on June 15th Tax Deadlines

Neymar Wins Championship but Faces Tax Evasion Investigation

Posted on June 7, 2015 by Russ

On Saturday Barcelona beat Juventus 3-1 in Berlin, Germany to win the Champions League Final in soccer (or football as it’s known everywhere but here). Neymar, from Brazil, is one of Barcelona’s star players.

Neymar might have enjoyed the game (and results) but the news out of Brazil might put a tarnish on everything: Neymar is under investigation for tax evasion. First reported by the Brazilian Epoca magazine, the alleged evasion took place form 2011-2014 and involves the money for the transfer of Neymar from Brazil to Barcelona. What was once €17.1 million became €57 million, with some of this supposedly ending up with Neymar.

Posted in Tax Evasion | Tagged | 1 Comment

Another Las Vegas Preparer Gets In Trouble Over the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion

Posted on June 7, 2015 by Russ

The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion is pretty simple to understand. An individual who is either a bona fide resident of a foreign country or is outside of the United States for 330 days out of a 365-day period can exclude about $99,000 of earned income from income tax. Seems fairly straightforward, right?

There is a codicil to the Exclusion. “This period can be waived when the Secretary of the Treasury determines, after consultation with the Secretary of State, that individuals were required to leave a foreign country due to war, civil unrest or other conditions that preclude the normal conduct of business, among other things.” A list of such countries is published each year. I prepare a lot of tax returns with the Exclusion. I have yet to prepare any with the Exclusion based on the waiver.

Sheila Bunting of North Las Vegas looked at that waiver list as a way to make her clients happy. She apparently repeatedly used the waiver clause of the Exclusion to get her clients a lower tax bill. Unfortunately, her clients weren’t in those countries. The IRS wasn’t amused, and Ms. Bunting found herself facing a lawsuit from the Department of Justice. She consented to a permanent injunction last week.

The DOJ press release notes, “The injunction requires Bunting to provide a list of customers that identifies by name, social security number, address, e-mail address, telephone number and tax periods, all persons for whom she has prepared federal tax returns or claims for refund since Jan. 1, 2012, that reference foreign earned income.” If you used butning’s 5 Star Tax LLC and have the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (Form 2555) on your tax return, you can expect to receive a “Dear Soon to be Audited Taxpayer” letter from the IRS.

This is the second Las Vegas preparer who recently has been in hot water over the Exclusion. Earlier this year Harvey Cage was sued by the Department of Justice for the same thing. I’d say it was something in the water but Las Vegas is in a desert.

Posted in Las Vegas, Tax Evasion | 1 Comment

The BEA Responds, or Making IRS Customer Service Look Normal (Bad)

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Russ

On Sunday I penned the post, “Making IRS Customer Service Look Good.” I now need to take that back. Why? I was greeted at 7am this morning by a phone call from an analyst from the Bureau of Economic Affairs.

He apologized for the issues that I had last week and confirmed:

1. The survey is required for all owners of 10% (or more) of foreign entities and US-owned foreign entities. This report is done every five years and is mandatory.

2. The BEA was stunned with the volume on inquiries last week on this survey. (I don’t think the BEA should have been surprised, but that’s another thing.) There phone system literally couldn’t handle the volume so in the best traditions of technology, it hung up on a lot of people. The extension, which normally must be sent in (similar to an extension for federal tax filing, Form 4868, where it’s automatic as long as you send in the paper/electronically file it) was made automatic because the BEA realized that they couldn’t handle the volume of extension requests.

3. Thus, most filers of the BEA-10 (“Survey of US Direct Investment Abroad”) have until June 30th to file.

Kudos to the BEA in reaching out and answering my questions. I do give the BEA a demerit for not appropriately publicizing this requirement. I would imagine there are numerous owners of foreign entities that are required to file the BEA-10 who still have no idea of the requirement. That said, I’m not sure how the BEA should publicize this; perhaps a notice sent to the American Bar Association?

Contrast the BEA being proactive with my call to the IRS Practitioner Priority Service yesterday. One of my clients closed his corporation in 2013 (filing a final return, closing it with the Corporation Commission in his state, etc.) and has moved so we needed to change the address with the IRS. (Yes, it’s a good idea to change the address for contact purposes as the IRS could audit the corporation’s returns.) I have a Power of Attorney for this corporation through the 2013 tax year, and the woman I spoke with questioned my ability to give a change-of-address for 2015 stating I would need a POA covering 2015. I noted to the IRS representative that there is no 2015 (or 2014) for this corporation; it would be the same thing as obtaining a POA for a deceased individual for the year after he died–impossible. In the end, I gave the representative the new address even after she told me she couldn’t confirm the IRS would do anything with it because I don’t have a POA covering 2015. Sigh….

Posted in BEA, IRS | 1 Comment

I’m Shocked, Shocked! That a Chicago Attorney may have Committed Tax Evasion Related to Corruption

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Russ

There’s one thing about Illinois politics: Both Democrats and Republicans tend toward corruption. After all, which of the past few governors haven’t gone to prison?

The DOJ news release on the indictment of Daniel Soso makes for interesting reading. Sure, he’s accused of not paying approximately $779,615.86 in income tax (I’m not sure how approximate that is when there are pennies in the press release, but whatever). But it’s the preceding paragraph that makes for intrigue:

The indictment alleges that in 1996, the Illinois Attorney General entered into a written contract with several law firms who represented the State of Illinois in its lawsuit against certain tobacco companies to recover, among other things, money damages incurred by the State of Illinois as a result of the sale of tobacco products to residents of the State of Illinois. In addition, the contract provided that the law firms representing the State of Illinois, including Law Firm B, would share a “contingent fee” equal to ten percent of the total monetary recovery realized by the State of Illinois in its planned lawsuit. The indictment further alleges that Soso, Individual A (an individual formerly licensed to practice in Illinois) and Individual B (a partner of Law Firm B) entered into agreements to pay Soso and Individual A a portion of the attorney fees awarded in the tobacco lawsuit and concealed these agreements from the State of Illinois, the Illinois Attorney General and others.

The Chicago Sun-Times let’s us know who they think Individual A is.

[Edward] Vrdolyak isn’t identified by name in the Soso indictment and hasn’t been charged with any wrongdoing in the case. But the indictment cites an unnamed “Individual A.” Vrdolyak is Individual A, two sources with knowledge of the case told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Mr. Vrdolyak is a former Chicago Alderman who was convicted back in 2008 in a kickback scheme and received ten months at ClubFed.

Chicago is a beautiful city–one of my favorite places in the world–but you can have both its weather and its politics.

Posted in Illinois, Tax Evasion | 1 Comment

Chipco President Gets 10 Months

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Russ

Back in March I reported on the president of Chipco, John Kendall. Chipco closed a couple of years ago, and most of us in the poker world thought it had to do with the end of the poker boom. That was probably a contributing factor. Another factor was that Mr. Kendall withheld payroll taxes, but didn’t forward them on to the state of Maine. And he got caught.

Mr. Kendall was sentenced on Friday to 3 1/2 years in prison, with all but ten months suspended. Mr. Kendall will remain free on bail while he appeals his conviction.

Posted in Tax Evasion | Comments Off on Chipco President Gets 10 Months

Making IRS Customer Service Look Good

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Russ

It’s hard to make the IRS’s customer service look good. If you get through–and it’s very difficult to reach the IRS, and you will usually be on hold for more than an hour before you do–there’s a good chance the information you receive will be wrong. Yet I have found another government agency that makes the IRS look superb.

Welcome to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. I’m trying to file an extension (which might be automatic, but the information on the website is inconclusive on that) for a client. Here’s the wonder of it all:

1. The website only worked without the “www.” That’s been fixed.
2. I attempted to efile the extension. That requires registration, and then approval by the BEA. But first-time filers can’t efile, so that didn’t work. Luckily, that extension (which I tried to file) doesn’t have to be filed: The BEA website now shows that the extension has been granted to June 30th for all new filers. (But I didn’t know that until late this weekend.)
3. Well, then I tried to fax the extension to the BEA. The BEA’s fax number rings busy…constantly.
4. I called the BEA, and got voice mail. A return phone call would be coming within 24 hours. No, it didn’t.
5. I’m now not even certain that the filing requirement exists for every business with foreign ownership. I’ve been told by someone else that he thinks only those contacted by the BEA have to file. Your guess is as good as mine on this.

In any case, I have lots of fax confirmation sheets showing I tried to fax the extension. And I have an understanding client who is as amused as I am with the BEA.

Posted in BEA | 1 Comment