Our latest findings with the new IRS Amnesty Program

I did say that the Service's position on the Amnesty was very much unmovable. 

However, I do want to report that we are having success in certain types of cases in getting the bank deposit penalties either eliminated or reduced in a manner which doesn’t show up obviously in the IRS series of questions. 

In the first case, we’re relying on Questions 17 in the IRS question which does say if you have no taxable income and you’ve paid all your taxes on your taxable income, there’s not going to be the substantial FBAR penalty violation that comes with a willful FBAR violation.  That being the case, with no taxes due, you don’t need to be in the amnesty program. 

What we had found is people have gone in the amnesty program, and then because of either loss, carry-forwards, or foreign tax credits on foreign income or whatever may arise in these individuals’ situations, that at times even though there’s been foreign bank deposit investment income not reported, we have been able to show that there has been no taxable income.  So that’s one area where there is some deviation if it’s handled in a sophisticated way.  

Richard Lehman has had extensive experience with all areas of the Internal Revenue Code that apply to American taxpayers and nonresident aliens and foreign corporations investing or conducting business in the United States, as well as U.S. citizens and domestic corporations investing abroad. 

Mr. Lehman has a national reputation for handling the toughest tax cases, structuring the most sophisticated income tax and estate tax plans, and defending clients before the Internal Revenue Service.