Its a local account, stupid! Generally, receiving this letter is an indication that your foreign bank is preparing to release your information to the IRS. Once that is done, the government will look to see if your account ever had in excess of a $10,000 balance. If it did and you did not report it on an FBAR or on your federal income taxes, the case will likely be referred to the IRS Criminal Investigation Division. At that point, the government will begin to build a case against you. A U.S. citizen can be sentenced up to five years in prison for each year that they willfully failed to file an FBAR and can be penalized up to 50% of the balance of the foreign account for each year that they willfully failed to report (up to 250% of the account’s balance). The civil penalties alone can easily reach double the amount of the balance of the account in question.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 13:31:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015