Ty Warner, the billionaire responsible for the creation of the popular Beanie Babies toy is hoping that a federal judge will show mercy and sentence him to probation rather than prison for tax evasion. The 69-year-old acknowledged that he failed to report millions of dollars of interest income from an […]
The U.S. Treasury has signed a number of intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) to combat offshore tax evasion and to comply with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). The U.S. has completed agreements with the Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, and the United […]
A member of the Spanish royal family, Princess Cristina, could be facing trial after being charged by a Spanish judge for tax fraud and money laundering. After a lengthy investigation, Palma de Mallorca Examining Magistrate Jose Castro brought forth a 200-page ruling citing evidence that the younger daughter of King […]
ust before Christmas, we began a two-part post on how to approach decisions about selecting a tax preparer. As we noted in our December 23 post, basic considerations to consider in sizing up potential tax preparers begin with making sure that the preparer you are thinking of using has a […]
Some states have income taxes and some do not. And in states with income taxes, Congress allows taxpayers to deduct their state income tax payments from their federal taxes. But in an effort to have equitable treatment between income-tax states and those with no income tax, Congress has historically allowed […]
Swiss banks are moving as quickly as possible to inspect account data with masses of lawyers and auditors at their sides in an attempt to meet a 31 December deadline set by the US Justice Department on an amnesty for institutions who admit to breaking America’s tax laws. Under this […]
Earlier this month, Deputy Consul General Devyani Khobragade was arrested, detained, strip-searched, and had her passport confiscated because of charges that she had lied on a visa application and was paying a house worker below minimum wage. What was a cordial and improving relationship between the United States and India […]
France has always been very fond of its culture. So fond, in fact, that it is contemplating taxing Facebook and YouTube for propelling services that affect the cultural fabric of L’hexagone. Under the country’s “cultural exception,” French cinema and music industries are protected against outside-especially American-companies that could harm the […]
It’s an annual ritual in recent years, one that reflects the dysfunctional, deficit-driven dance of an overly contentious Congress. One again, Congress is letting numerous tax breaks expire. But because Congress also has a pattern of reinstating those breaks months later in a piecemeal manner, the result is to make […]
Brazil was a model for financial discipline during the global financial crises. While much of the world economy was slowing down or contracting, Brazil will was chugging along quite serenely. Unfortunately, as with all things-good or bad-, it came to an end. Now Brazil is preparing to face some tax […]