Americans in Sweden suffer US tax crackdown
Like Canada, Sweden is definitely not a tax haven. Expat4ever posted a link to an article about Americans in Sweden facing the wrath of the IRS. One woman, who has been filing with IRS every year for 25 years was told by IRS she owed over $1 million for failure to file FBARs (which she, like others, didn’t know about).
I’m moving the link to the article here so it has its own thread. I have posted a comment on the Swedish website inviting folks in Sweden to join with us here at Isaac Brock.
O.K.
Thanks for the info. Luch break is over, so I should be getting back to work. I’m glad I didn’t have spam. 🙂
Thanks for the spam. I enjoy almost anything that Terry Gilliam has contributed to. I admire him for his principles and smarts. He was smart enough to renounce way back in 2006. He explains his reasons for doing so toward the end of this clip.
@Another Victim,
Hi, I just want to confirm that what you are saying is:
“If the value of ALL financial accounts is $10,000 or over (i.e., not the largest account)…” as below for what the IRS says to us.
Who Must File an FBAR
United States persons are required to file an FBAR if:
The United States person had a financial interest in or signature authority over at least one financial account located outside of the United States; and
The aggregate value of all foreign financial accounts exceeded $10,000 at any time during the calendar year to be reported.
United States person means United States citizens; United States residents; entities, including but not limited to, corporations, partnerships, or limited liability companies created or organized in the United States or under the laws of the United States; and trusts or estates formed under the laws of the United States.
@ all On why the term “aggregate” is an accounting lie that the IRS foists upon the American people:
http://isaacbrocksociety.com/2011/12/19/the-term-aggregate-in-irs-speak-is-a-fraud-perpetuated-on-us-persons/
Excellent post from Petros. I can only tell you what I was advised to do. That was to look at my accounts and at any one point during the year, if the sum total of all of the balances at that point in time was more than USD 10k, then the FBAR had to be filed.
@AnotherVictim
Excellent comments, and right on point! Thanks for providing them for those here who struggle with the cost of doing what they feel is right. As another victim I heard say, when he got his attorney fees, he had to put on adult diapers! $40K is nothing compared to how much it can run, if you turn over the entire process to an attorney!
This confirms why I have said, one needs to do their own drudgery related to the OVDI. I quickly figured that using an attorney, for all the reasons you have sited would be as expensive as the penalties themselves. I figured, that most of the work was really just clerical crap, and anyone could do it, if they would just apply themselves, rather than pay some attorney, their associate or CPA to do it.
So, I would only use an attorney for advice as to helping you assess your facts (after you have done your own education drudgery). That is warranted at the beginning of the process or at some critical decision point like should you Opt Out, but other than that, DIY for the OVDI is very possible, in fact the only logical way for a Minnow to approach the problem. At max, pay for a few hours of legal assessment time, vs having them do everything for you and giving them or a CPA Power of Attorney (POA).
I would NEVER pay an attorney to do for you, what you can do for yourself. Their fees are structured for those rich enough that money is of no consequence, or for folks who feel they can not spare the time, as theirs is too valuable, or for folks that are fearful and don’t know what to do. And so they pay through the nose for it.
When it comes to attorney and their fees, Caveat emptor!
However, if you don’t have monopoly money and the above does not describe you, then by all means, if you have decided to join the OVDI after doing your drudgery, then DO THE ACTUAL PROCESS YOURSELF. You can write the letters. You can calculate your highest aggregate. You can figure exchange rates. You don’t need an attorney for any of this. Your examiner may want an POA to deal with as it is easier for them. They like someone who talks the lingo, but I told mine, “tough… you are getting me… period. So if you want something I don’t understand, you are just going to have to explain it to me, as I am not paying someone to deal with you!!!”
Now, I have to say, that having some meager Excel spread sheet skills did help, especially when it came to creating a flow sheet to show fund flows between accounts and to be sure you were not double counting money. Also, there is a year by year reconciliation process that required me to produce spreadsheets to verify the examiners numbers and to link them all up so that there was a summary sheet which the IRS did not provide.
If a person wasn’t comfortable working with Excel, then they might have been tempted to have someone do it for them, However, in this day and age, there are many inexpensive help sources in learning how to add up numbers in a column within a spread sheet, and you don’t need to be paying a CPA or attorney $100s of dollars an hour to accomplish that. If that is an issue for you, then it is FAR cheaper just to take an Excel class yourself for a few hours to get proficient enough rather than pay for the simple clerical help. At the end of it, you have something for your money, a new skill!
So my advice is to steer clear of the attorneys for mundane processing, and use them only for critical legal assessment. It is there that they are worth the money, but for anything else, pay yourself the $400 to $700 and hour these guys want to charge. Frankly for most of what you have to do in the OVDI, $50 an hour is too much to pay.
@AnotherVictim
Yes, there are many things wrong with the highest aggregate, but the IRS made the rules, and if you are in the OVDI, you have to follow them. They do not take alternate suggestions on what they should do, or fairer ways to calculate it. I made many, like how FX rates should be applied. Of course, that was wasted effort, and the Examiners are just going to follow their rules, and no discretion is allowed. Petros may make logical arguments about highest aggregates, but there is nothing logical about the process or the statutes on which the FBAR was created in the first place, It is like all government accounting that you can endlessly site as an example of deception.
Example: One deception that bugged me the most during the W years was fighting two wars on supplemental budgets and then not using the money spent to calculate the annual budget deficit that was reported to a gullible US audience. The war spending was off balance sheet of course, and made the deficits look much lower than they were. That is effective in duping a lot of uninformed citizens (including the self identified small government T-party types) until they figure out the annual debt is going up way more than each year’s reported budget deficit!
Government plays these accounting games all the time, and highest aggregate is no different. You just have to understand the game, and calculate it according to their rules as stupid as they are. In the OVDP, they did allow you to cancel out duplicate funds that had transferred between accounts, so in the examples that Petros sited, $9,999 transferring between 4 accounts would still only be $9,999 for purposes of the highest aggregate.
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