If you have over $10,000.00 stashed away in a bank account in a foreign country, you may have to report it to the IRS using IRS form TD F 90-22.1. (Also note you have to report interest in foreign assets and corporations, but that is outside the scope of this blog post.) Below are some [...]

There may be confusion to the non- U.S. citizen or resident when it comes whether he, she, or the company must file a tax return in the United States. To begin, it should be determined when a person is a non-resident alien. A nonresident alien is an alien who has not passed the green card [...]

One of the benefits to S-Corps, as opposed to other pass-through entities such as LLC’s or partnerships, is that S-Corp shareholders do not have to pay self employment tax on income. This distinction between the different business entities is key: 13.3% tax on your income key. The IRS considers business owners self-employed if they are [...]

To say California’s rules for taxing trusts are complex is an understatement.  In any case, the rules are still there, and you the taxpayer should be aware if there are California reporting obligations.  Failure to file trust tax returns may result in severe penalties in addition to prolonging statute of limitations for California Franchise Tax [...]

It’s tax prep time and that includes non-profit organizations required to file IRS Form 990.  The Service revised this year’s Form 990 as well as its instructions and schedules to provide for further taxpayer disclosure with respect to joint ventures, investment partnerships, compensation, and hospitals. Officer Compensation: Organizations reporting compensation to officers, directors, individual trustees [...]

Back in 2009, the California legislature dangled a carrot for businesses to hire employees so people can go back to work.  Well, that, and so California can generate more tax dollars from those workers.  Even so, the incentive is still there for small businesses.  The carrot is a $3,000.00 tax credit to employers for each [...]

The California legislature is serious about penalizing those employers – and workers – trying to skip out on payroll taxes and employee protections (worker compensation insurance, unemployment benefits). SB 459 passed last fall and is now existing law as California Labor Code sec. 226.8. This new law penalizes employers for “willful misclassifications” of individuals as [...]

A third amnesty program for federal reporting of foreign assets is now available according to IR-2012-5. The IRS is typically, in most minds anyway, reluctant to give taxpayers a break – at least not three times over. Lets not break out the halos just yet. The 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP), the sequel to [...]

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) brought about change affecting employee W-2 wage reporting starting in the 2011 tax year. Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) Section 6051(a)(14) provides generally that the aggregate cost of applicable employer-sponsored coverage must be included in the information reported on the W-2 for taxable years beginning on [...]