The Role of Lawyer and Accountant on the FATCA Team
The purpose of this article is to focus on the fact that the United States taxpayer, who is not in compliance with the FATCA must understand that the appropriate way to deal with these unreported accounts is to rely on the team of both a tax lawyer and a CPA to fulfill the compliance requirements.
The IRS has established three separate programs under which the American taxpayer can now report foreign bank deposits that have been unreported in the past.
The Team Approach
The purpose of this article is to focus on the fact that the United States taxpayer, who is not in compliance with the FATCA must understand that the appropriate way to deal with these unreported accounts is to rely on the team of both a tax lawyer and a CPA to fulfill the compliance requirements.
The cornerstone of determining which of the three U.S. relief programs is applicable to each taxpayer, is the determination of whether under the law a taxpayer who has not complied with the reporting requirements is either “willful” in his or her noncompliance or “non-willful”. The determination is a legal determination that has significant consequences.
The determination of which of the three relief programs offered by the IRS, is the appropriate program for the reader begins with the legal determination of whether the taxpayer is willful or non-willful. This is because in the event the taxpayer has been “willful” in their failure to file the appropriate bank reporting accounts, the taxpayer can be subject to a vast array of penalties. Even the willful taxpayer who is not in compliance to the IRS will be able to come into compliance with the United States laws and avoid the array of penalties that could very well devastate the fortunes of the “willful” taxpayer. The willful taxpayer has the chance to join one of the IRS programs.
As will also be seen, the programs not only differentiate between the willful and non-willful taxpayers. They also distinguish between the non-willful U.S. taxpayer who is a tax resident of a foreign country and U.S. taxpayers who are residents of the United States.
The team of tax lawyer, who must insure that the diagnosis of which program fits each delinquent each taxpayer is an accurate diagnosis; and the accountant is critical to success for the taxpayer. It is the tax lawyer who knows the law and who must make this initial diagnosis. It is the accountant who insures that the compliance to qualify for each program is accurate.
Read this full article, by Richard S. Lehman, Esq on LehmanTaxLaw.com