A certain important person in my reality – my wife – is becoming increasingly interested in the business end of biomass refineries. You go girl. Funny but this interest also happens to correlate with a new file I am developing involving a farmer who owns an ethanol plant so hopefully we will be taking another journey together. What I am quickly learning is that valuation in this particular file really is all about the asset list, depreciation schedule, useful life, salvage value and the significance of having the assets properly categorized (to clean up the tax returns). It is a mess. From my warped perspective there is no better way to understand the business end of a refinery then to start with assets. So honey feel welcome to contribute to your heart’s content…

In conducting research I came across IRS Revenue Ruling 2014-17 stating tangible Read More

Often, U.S. citizens who move to Canada are shareholders of U.S. S Corporations. This can potentially create double tax problems.

Under Canadian tax law, the S Corporation is just like any other foreign corporation. Dividends received are generally fully taxable. In addition, if the S Corporation is a “controlled foreign affiliate”, the shareholder can be taxable on his or her share of underlying investment income and capital gains under Canada’s “foreign accrual property income” (“FAPI”) rules.

Double taxation can arise because of the fact that Canada will generally only grant limited foreign tax credit relief for the U.S. taxes paid by the shareholder on the S Corporation Read More

For decades, states have sought ways to get remote (non-present) vendors to collect sales/use tax when they sell to customers in the state. States have been pushing Congress to provide assistance and many have enacted laws to broaden their nexus reach.

I’ve been researching, writing and testifying on this topic for many years. One of my suggestions has been to only let the state and its agencies purchase from vendors that are registered with the state to collect sales tax. That is, if a vendor wants to have the state or any of its agencies be a customer, it must register to collect sales/use tax.

Before California enacted its “Amazon law” in 2011, I always thought it was odd that my Read More

Answers to the Most Frequently Asked Questions Regarding OVDP

As a tax attorney specializing in the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP), nary a day goes by that I don’t get a call from a person inquiring about the OVDP. The questions asked are relatively the same. After a while, I began to make a list of the most frequently asked questions. Below are my answers to them: (continued)

XIV. If the amount of income that I underreported from my foreign bank account was de minimis, do I really need to enter the program?

According to the IRS, no amount of unreported income is considered de minimis for purposes of determining whether there has been tax non-compliance with respect to an Read More

Posted in sections, this is my Doctoral Thesis on taxpayers rights when audited by the tax authorities in South Africa – equally applicable to many English-based law systems in Africa and abroad (eg. India). This will be of particular use to any tax practitioners doing work in Africa and in other English-based legal systems around the world.

Analysis Of Challenging The Commissioner’s Discretionary Powers In Auditing Taxpayers under The Constitution Of The Republic of South Africa

2.5 ADEQUATE REASONS

2.5.3 The meaning of ‘adequate reasons’ Read More

Many Americans hold interests in income-producing properties in Canada. In many cases, when they acquire them, they do not obtain proper advice regarding the Canadian tax implications and requirements.

This can be quite costly-in the absence of following certain procedures, an American resident earning rents from Canadian real estate can be subject to a 25% Canadian tax on GROSS rents (that is, no deduction for related expenses). This can apply even if no profit is being earned from renting the property.

As a general rule, a non-resident who earns rents for the use of Canadian real estate is subject to 25% tax on the gross rents under Part XIII of the Income Tax Act (“the Act”). This Read More

I. The Residence of Individuals

Individual residents of the United States, regardless of nationality, must pay U.S. tax on their worldwide income. U.S. taxation of nonresident aliens, by contrast, is largely limited to income from sources in the United States. Therefore, residence is the first and most important touchstone of U.S. taxation for foreign nationals.

Residence is a measure of the extent and permanence of an individual’s presence in a given place. The notion of residence, which has bearing in many legal contexts, took on a life of its own early on in the realm of taxation. Even within taxation, the notion of residence is now made up of several separate strands. Read More

TaxConnections is proud to announce the release of TaxConnections Tax Video Library. Our first group of highly reputable and qualified CPE Instructors comes through our alliance with CPE Link. We are proud to be working in partnership with CPE Link in offering tax education courses. TaxConnections is focused on offering a wide range of tax topics from Instructors who are considered the very best in the tax profession. You can expect to see a growing number of Tax Instructors at TaxConnections who are committed to giving you their very best.

Our vision of creating TaxConnections Worldwide Directory of Tax Professionals and linking this to TaxConnections Worldwide Tax Education is a winning formula for tax professionals and consumers. As our early Investors knew all along our goal has been to Read More

In South Africa, the South African Revenue Service (SARS the local equivalent of the IRS) has just issued a draft public notice for comment and it refers to strange new terminology, not always correctly understood by the non-American resident.

Most US expats and failed SA expats returning from the USA with a green card in the back pocket, are all facing being caught red handed. Yes, for many years SARS was not the best of gossip queen in the OECD. The cam the Krok case and SARS received some interesting info from the ATO. Not only did SARS wake up to the word FOUNDATION they also saw the benefit of acting in “cohort” with another tax authority.

Suddenly the effort to make FATCA happen for FFI’s in South Africa, became an interesting Read More

Many Americans hold interests in vacation or recreational properties in Canada. Often such properties are intended to be passed on from generation to generation.

Canada taxes U.S. residents on capital gains from the sale or other disposition of Canadian real estate, even if such real estate is held for recreational or vacation purposes.

Canada’s ability to tax U.S. residents on gains from the disposition of Canadian real estate is recognized in Article XIII(3) of the Canada-U.S. Tax Convention (“the Treaty”)

In addition, when a U.S. resident dies owning Canadian real estate, that individual will generally be deemed to have disposed of the property immediately before his or her death Read More

Answers to the Most Frequently Asked Questions Regarding OVDP

As a tax attorney specializing in the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP), nary a day goes by that I don’t get a call from a person inquiring about the OVDP. The questions asked are relatively the same. After a while, I began to make a list of the most frequently asked questions. Below are my answers to them: (continued)

XIII. I have two offshore accounts. No FBARs were filed. I reported all income from one account, but not the other. How do I report this?

The issue can be framed as follows: Must you report both accounts as a voluntary Read More