View Single Post
  #2  
Old 14.09.2009, 18:57
jwalker46 jwalker46 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: France
Posts: 160
Groaned at 8 Times in 6 Posts
Thanked 49 Times in 39 Posts
jwalker46 is considered a nuisancejwalker46 is considered a nuisancejwalker46 is considered a nuisance
Re: For US taxpayers.

Quote:
View Post
There's an article on the Geneva Lunch site about new arrangements for tax which may be of interest to our American members.
It is kind of you to post any links that may be helpful, so please take the following as well-intended: the article is simply negligent and wildly inaccurate in its description of the US tax code. There have been no substantive changes in the past few years, nor even in the "FBAR" (bank account) reporting requirements. (I've been filing that form for over seven years now - the requirement to file is not "new").

As an example, the author writes: "If you are a US citizen with a foreign company or partnership you have to file not just individual but corporate taxes and the penalty for failing to do so is $10,000 per year." Well, that is simply not true; you do not file "corporate taxes" in either case. Further, the penalty cited is not for non-filing of tax returns, but for non-filing of certain information returns.

Quite simply, any US citizen who has been filing an annual tax return and related information returns does not face any "new" issues or problems or taxes. Any citizen who has not been filing is an idiot, and doesn't deserve a lot of sympathy.

Last, but not least, the articles are a (perhaps predictable?) apology for UBS, with a charming omission of little details (UBS officers smuggling diamonds, advising on sham Hong Kong companies, conspiring to defraud the US Treasury, etc), and a brazen (and quite false) suggestion that UBS may not have realized it was breaking US law.
Reply With Quote
This user would like to thank jwalker46 for this useful post: