Greenback Expat Tax News: Short video explains how US expats can benefit from the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program….
— Greenback Expat Tax (@GreenbackTax) April 25, 2012
I request that you watch the video described in the above tweet from Greenback Expat Tax Services. Makes me wonder if U.S. citizens abroad have more reason to fear the “cross border professionals” than the IRS. Would be very interested in your comments.
They have posted the same video on YouTube:
If you agree with me, the next question is:
Is there anything the Isaac Brock Society can and should be doing to protect people from this kind of stuff? This video appears to suggest that jail time is likely for people who do NOT file past FBARs and and are caught by the IRS. If I am wrong, I stand corrected and apologize. It is suggested that the penalty outside of OVDI is the willfulness penalty and the jail time is a realistic possibility (for past failures to file FBARs). Furthermore, as usual they are suggesting that the only way to solve these problems is through OVDI.
If I am right in this interpretation, this is an outrage!
HOW WE GOT STARTED:
Greenback Expat Tax Services was founded by two London-based American MBAs who spent years being frustrated by how hard it was to get our US expat taxes done right. Our experience was that finding a CPA with good expat experience and good customer references was impossible. Our previous US CPA didn’t see enough expat returns to be fully up to speed with the rules as they applied to Americans living abroad. Our friends either had horror stories about expat accountants who quoted one fee upfront and then tacked on huge charges at the end of the process or avoided filing altogether because it was too complicated. And all the tax software simply didn’t have the muscle to handle even a simple expat return. So, we decided to do something about it!
We pride ourselves on having recruited the best expat accountants to our team: people who know all the ins and outs of expat rules and taxes, who are easy to work with and approachable, and who can translate the complicated tax code into something that makes sense to non-accountants. We bring that together with best-in-class systems that ensure all sensitive tax information is fully secure. Finally, we make our forms and paperwork as simple as they can be (beware: there is always some work involved!) which keeps the process as easy as possible for our customers. And we offer transparent pricing — one flat, fair fee for all federal returns, no surprises — guaranteed.
There is no mention of a connection with any lawyers.
Finally, if I am wrong in my interpretation, please explain why and this post should be removed.
The US treasury department cannot seize 50% of accounts, as the video suggests incorrectly. It has both incorrect and fearmongering information in it. This is incompetence at best, and evil at worst. Stay away from these folks. That’s my recommendation.
Also, the video suggests that you can go to jail if you have over $10,000 in a bank account, and that’s why you need to enter the OVDI and hand over 27.5 % of your assets to the IRS. Who ever made this video is an absolute imbecile or is utterly corrupt and is willing to fearmonger in order to take money from poor unsuspecting victims. This is exactly why we need the Isaac Brock Society, to expose corruption of this sort. That’s why we produced this press release: http://isaacbrocksociety.com/2012/01/10/press-release-isaac-brock-society/
I urge people to leave a message at their website: http://www.greenbacktaxservices.com/contact/
Tell them why what they are doing is incompetent and why you will be recommending that people avoid their firm. Cheers.
Wow. I’m so glad I hadn’t gone to them last year. My accountant is much more expensive but at least has an understanding of all the shades of grey with past noncompliance…she actually probably saved me life altering penalties.
Phew – I almost hired these guys.
One of their youtube videos has a negative but very vague comment from a guy who claimed to have had a bad experience with them. They may have changed their tune: at one point there was a lot more reassuring stuff on their website about how lenient the IRS is to expats etc. I mentioned this on another thread a while back.
they did do a good job of illustrating what aggregate means
🙂
That’s the way I also perceived the message.
“Who are these people anyway?”
People who want to capitalize of the fears generated by the IRS. This is just disgusting.
Very, very misleading. No mention of the Opt Out procedure. The references to jail time are extremely reckless.
“Greenback” how appropriate. Appreciate the double entendre: profits to be made on the backs of the gringo (folklore says the word “gingo” was generated when the US invaded mexico, wearing green uniforms, and the people shouted at them “Green Go Home”).
@bubblebustin: Here is the skinny on the term “aggregate”, which is a financial fraud.
http://isaacbrocksociety.com/2011/12/19/the-term-aggregate-in-irs-speak-is-a-fraud-perpetuated-on-us-persons/
Lol, i just tweeted that he should make “profiting on the backs of the gringo” as his slogan.
Videos like this are using the fear factor obviously. That’s why I was looking for a more definitive answer from “IRS 30 years vet” about the collection powers of the IRS abroad. I suspect without liens on your house or attachments on your pay or freezing bank accounts for homelanders, the IRS is a much weaker position to collect – you can pretty much tell them to screw.
I realise they could resort to criminal proceedings and try for extradition, but that would be another long winded process and not particularly cost effective if the taxpayer owes little or nothing.
Also it debatable if you’re committing a crime in another country not filing a tax return as a former resident in a country that uses residence-based taxation.
Has anyone run across information about the IRS’s attempts to ever collect money abroad on minnows or is it nasty letters and we’ll see you at the border if ever.
I’ve heard stories they may be able to invoke MLAT and basically go to the county court in the UK and basically try to collect like a credit card company via a CCJ which would be an expensive way to collect small amounts of tax and doesn’t necessarily force the defendant to pay. It’s more like a stain on your credit record.
Does anyone know for sure?
This could well qualify as false advertising because the obvious implication is that anyone who has failed to file back taxes or FBARs must enter the program or they will face criminal prosecution. There is no information about the fact that those who owe no taxes will not be penalized for filing back tax forms, and if there is reasonable cause for failure to file, FBAR penalties will not accrue. This is fraudulent and this bunch should be told, over and over again, just how misleading this is. I’ll be commenting over there. Disgraceful.
@John
My understanding is in the late 1990s the IRS went through a big re-organization. One part of that was almost all its foreign offices were closed and all international filing issues were allocated to a processing center in suburban Philadelphia(I found it on Google Street View its a pretty drab facility). After this point I don’t think there has really be any effort to reach out internationally either in terms or information or enforcement. In the early 1990s there were outreach efforts in places like the Middle East but I don’t see this happening in the current US budgetary climate.
@ John Canada will not extradite people to the United States for tax issues or FBAR. See the Canada United States extradition treaty.
Thanks petros & tim I alwayats was under the impression once you expatriate your assets, IRS can’t use its usual bully boy tactics as they routinely use against homelanders. Tim I’m the people who work in Philadelphia are as drab as the building they work in. Can you picture them complaining why foreigners can’t use US formatted addresses and phone numbers to make their job easier. That bone-head Romney won’t make things better, all his blurb is about make America great again!
@Petros, John’s in the UK, like me. I suspect that Tim is correct and that the IRS would focus on whales or expats who’ve been blatently guilty of tax evasion when enforcing fines abroad.
But with FATCA coming, who’s to say that a future Commissioner may not eventually decide to make random examples of minnows too in order to show that the law applies to everybody across the board.
But I agree that there has been a lot of bluff from these professionals.
@Mona The IRS may use FATCA information to send excessive fines (50% of account contents) to account holders, and then they will say a Hail Mary that the recipients of these nasty letters will send the fine in absolute panic. But the IRS has no way to collect from anyone whose assets are in a foreign country, without the cooperation of that foreign country. Canada has said that they will not help: that is why I use my real name. (Peter W. Dunn–the real Peter Dunn–LOL)
https://twitter.com/#!/FBAR_Compliant/status/195211776449716225
@John: my office is currently researching the options the IRS has with regard to collecting taxes abroad. I hope to post something on my blog shortly with some definitive answers. The short answer is, if it is a high profile criminal matter or high visibility target, the IRS can use its limited powers under the various treaties to make some noise and hope for cooperation from the foreign government. The IRS certainly has no authority to file liens abroad, close bank accounts or levy on assets abroad.
My guess is in the overwhelming majority of cases, the IRS cannot, nor will it be inclined to pursue anything. There is one area of vulnerability however and that is assuming there is a valid assessment on the IRS books, the IRS could easily seize social security payments or other fixed and periodic pension-type payments which originate in the United States and are sent to expats abroad. Hope this helps for now.
Respectufully submitted,
30 Year IRS Vet
@petros, thanks for the link to the aggravating aggregate. I left a response there.
@IRS vet Yeah. The IRS can have my Social Security. LOL. I think I’m a few quarters short to qualify for benefits. Your confirmation of this point is welcome. Thanks.
@all… Steve hasn’t mentioned it, but he has a good post on his blog called
FBAR Penalty Administration: “Good Government” Or “Bad Government”?
(or if he has somewhere else on our blog, I am way behind in my reading….)
http://mopsicktaxlaw.blogspot.co.nz/2012/04/fbar-penalty-administration-good.html
… and, similarly, I wonder if H&R Block still has this page: http://www.hrblock.ca/canada-irs.asp
@Just Me, thanks for posting that link. Mr Mopsick is always a good source of information and insight into the IRS. I am concerned about his description of a QD as filing going forward, or filing a few years of past returns. I read on another site (Jack Townsend I think) that a true Quiet Disclosure was to file an amended return “fessing up to having more income than the earlier return documented, and not explaining it. In contrast, I suspect a lot of us minnows who owe no taxes plan to file X years of back returns and FBARs with or without an explanation, and/or simply comply going forward. Why would the IRS waste time punishing someone who is now compliant and who owes nothing?