United States taxpayers with foreign accounts or assets need to be extra vigilant to stay in IRS reporting and filing compliance. Non-US items such as bank, securities or retirement accounts, trusts, rental property, company ownership and other investments often need to be accounted for and disclosed to the IRS annually.
Worse yet, the penalties for failing to file can often be draconian. If you have these types of accounts, and have failed to report them in the past, the Law Offices of Michael Raff, LLC is well equipped to discuss options with you to get into filing compliance. The Streamlined Foreign Offshore Procedures has no penalty associated with filing, where as the Streamlined Domestic Offshore Procedures has a 5% penalty of the highest balance of your foreign assets, a fraction of what other failure to file penalties could entail. It is imperative that you discuss these options with the Law Offices of Michael Raff, LLC as soon as possible, prior to the initiation of an exam and before the IRS ends the programs.