Posted on September 27,2013 in Tax Audits

The Internal Revenue Service has, for weeks now, been embroiled in a controversy that alleged that some of its top officials were involved in unfair scrutiny of Tea Party groups in tax matters. Lori Lerner, the official who was the subject of an investigation into the matter by Congress, recently retired.

The Internal Revenue Service recently released a statement, saying that Lerner has retired, effective immediately. Lerner served as the agency's former director of exempt organizations.

Since May, she had been placed on administration leave. An internal agency board was soon due to begin the process of firing her, based on breach of duties and mismanagement.

Lerner was in charge of that wing of the agency that is responsible for reviewing applications from groups claiming tax exemption. In 2010, however the office under Lerner began targeting some groups for further scrutiny in tax-related matters, based on whether they had the words "Tea Party" as part of their names.

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 Posted on August 21,2013 in Taxation Law

There has been a significant increase in the number of American citizens living abroad who have decided to give up their passports. That significant increase is being linked to a change in tax laws that is forcing many persons living abroad to wonder whether it is really worth holding onto their US citizenship any longer.

The United States currently is the only country to continue taxing citizens no matter where they live around the world. Now, a new tax hike looms and the hike will employ stricter assets disclosure laws under the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act. Many Americans currently living abroad will feel the impact of these laws.

According to estimates, in the three months through June of this year, as many as 1,131 American citizens living abroad renounced their citizenships, and turned over their passports at embassies around the world. During the same period of time in 2012, there had been just 189 people who renounced citizenship. During the first six months of 2013, as many as 1,810 American expatriates decided to hand over their passports. That was a six-fold increase, and those numbers definitely merit attention.

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