Offshore Tax Havens and Tax Cheats Targeted by the IRS – Voluntary Disclosure Deadline Approaches!

President Obama promised in his campaign to target wealthy Americans who “do not pay their fair share”  of taxes on the backs of the middle class and working poor.  With the swiftness of Robin Hood, the Obama administration has set out to curb what costs the US Government an estimated $100 Billion in revenue annually. 

There is an upcoming deadline of September 23, 2009 which marks the end of a type of amnesty program on the part of the Internal Revenue Service to have US Taxpayers voluntarily disclose their offshore assets and back taxes owed to avoid criminal prosecution. 

The motivation for this voluntary disclosure is the pending case against Swiss Bank UBS which has admitted to targeting wealthy Americans  to aid them in hiding otherwise taxable income offshore.  Part of the settlement to avoid criminal indictment of the bank in the United States calls for UBS to disclose the names of the Americans hiding assets in Switzerland!

Aside from this recent development with UBS, due to the state of the global economy and its effect on the national treasuries of various industrialized nations in the US and Europe, there has been increased cooperation between any worldwide tax treaty countries.  This effort to replenish eachs’ Treasuries by the “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”  joint effort is essentially an effort to help police each others’ tax evaders.

So, while this latest effort might not stamp out tax evaders…it is definately making the world a lot “smaller” since “big brother is watching” a lot more easily with modern technology these days!

For any assistance with the US Tax Amnesty program, please contact our office at (305) 672-4272.

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Starting a New Business – Choice of Entity Type is Important

The current recession has caused many to lose their jobs.  In turn, many individuals who might be recently freed from the constraints of working for someone else now have the opportunity to become entrepreneurs and start their own company to support themselves.

For these new entrepreneurs, how to choose between an entity type LLC, Corporation, S-Corporation, LLP, Partnership or Sole-Proprietorship Self Employment is not always clear.  The tax treatment of entity type chosen can have a substantial impact on an entrepreneur’s finances for the lifetime of the company.  Therefore, it is often important to get the right guidance from the right professional – instead of the best price on a company formation online.

Setting up a new company with a qualified professional such a a certified public accountant may be available for almost the same cost (or less) than the online services once all the associated fees are added up such as rush processing, obtaining an EIN, S-election, etc.   The benefit of using a CPA to form a new company is that you may get pointed in the right direction from the very beginning – instead of being stuck with a tax on the company operations that might have been otherwise legally avoidable!

Some states have state income taxes on company income while others like the State of Florida do not currently have a state income tax on most types of entities – with the exception being C-corporations.   That leaves other entity types such as LLC’s and S-Corporations generally without any State of Florida Income Tax on the operating income!

Therefore, if a LLC or S-Corporation has operations which could be done exactly the same in the State of Florida vs. New York – the owners of that company would generally put more money in their pocket – after taxes – by operating the company and living in Florida vs. New York – simply by being in Florida since Florida has no state income tax for individuals nor for LLC or S-Corporation entity types !   It might be enough reason for a business owner to consider to literally move a company to the State of Florida from another state to eliminate state income tax on company profits legally!  Relocation of a Company to the State of Florida from another state is one way to legally reduce or eliminate State Income Tax on profits.

See our Firm Video on Choice of Business Entity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vu4PYu5Jkws

To Incorporate a New Business as well as for assistance with the tax considerations of Forming a New Company in the State of Florida or the Reorganization of a Company to the State of Florida from another state, please contact the accounting firm of David L Wrubel CPA PA:

Should you have questions or need Business or Individual Tax Advice, our firm may be contacted at: 

PHONE:  (305) 672-4272  [4CPA]

E-MAIL:  DAVID@CPA-FL.COM   

WEBSITE:  WWW.CPA-FL.COM

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @MiamiBeachCPA

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Escape from New York (Taxes) ! – It’s not just Kurt Russell who wants to dodge the State tax bullet!

Billionaire Paychex founder  Tom Golisano changes address to Florida to avoid New York taxes:

This is a perfect example of how simply changing things slightly in one’s financial set up and physical location – can save someone a substantial amount of State income tax – by moving to a State such as Florida which does not have a State Income Tax for Individuals.  

One can also consider moving their business to Florida to possibly save on State Income tax stemming from their ownership of certain types of business entities.  Good candidates are businesses that can be operated from anywhere such as an internet based business. 

The article below quotes the founder of Paychex Golisano saying “moving to a state without a personal income tax will save him $13,800 a day. The founder of the Penfield-based Paychex Inc. business services company owns a home in Naples, Fla. ”

Click here for the Associated Press Article:

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