IRS Fact Sheet 2011-13 (FS -2011-13) has been heavily touted (mostly in the Canadian Press) as providing FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report) relief for dual U.S. citizens abroad. However, in the view of our tax attorneys it simply reiterates existing law. As readers of the Tax Problem Attorney Blog are aware, U.S. persons with offshore bank accounts with a balance of greater than $10,000 are required to file a Foreign Bank Account Report (aka FBAR) with the Internal Revenue Service annually. Penalties for failure to file the FBAR can be draconian. In addition U.S. citizens living in foreign countries are required to file U.S. tax returns reporting their worldwide income. Penalties for failure to file a tax return may also be imposed.

FS-2011-13 states that no penalties will be imposed for failure to file a tax return or failure to pay tax if no tax is owed. Well big deal!

Read more…

Let me give you the bottom line first, then the rationale: If you’re reading Barron’s, you need Quicken to help manage your finances. Honest.

Other people might be able to get away with one of the many lesser products that have comeand, mostly, gone nowhereon the Web in recent years. But not those who, like many of you, have enough different asset accounts and tax challenges to require a real electronic money manager. Today, the term personal-finance manager is applied even to Websites that are little more than financial chat rooms. But Intuit’s (http://quicken.intuit.com) just-released 2012 edition of Quicken is …

On October 17, An International Monetary Fund (IMF) http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm team led by its head to Seychelles, Jean Le Dem, visited President James Michel to appraise him on how they find the economic reform going. Also, Vice-President Danny Faure, who is also the Minister for Finance, Central Bank Governor Pierre Laporte and principal secretary for Finance and Trade Ahmed Afif were present during the meeting.

Mr Le Dem said that the programme’s performance was good and the jurisdiction has met all the quantitative criteria as at the end of June 2011. He said that the Fund will next review the structural reform programme and see where it is necessary to accelerate the programme. Also, it will discuss Seychelles Budget 2012 including the situation with Air Seychelles.

Mr Le Dem noted: “We also discussed the inflation issue which has risen a little to 3.3% in September and the chances for price increases but also how this can be mitigated through the social welfare agency”. He st

Read more…

Anyone who knows me knows that my favorite vacation destination is Walt Disney World (WDW) in Florida. Some would say I have an unhealthy addiction to the place whereas I would simply call myself a fan. Either way, my travels to Disney World have taught me quite a bit about money.

I know what you’re thinking: “Isn’t Disney World the place you go to blow tons of money, not where you go to learn about money?” To some extent this is true. You can certainly blow a large chunk of change in WDW. They’ll take anything you’ll give them. Before I got savvy about how to visit economically, I did indeed blow more money than I had to. But I learned and corrected my mistakes. Over the years I’ve discovered that the lessons I learned in order to visit WDW more often spilled over into other areas of my finances. It was a stra

Read more…

A previous article discussed the subject of maintaining your original Will in a safe location. A related question is whether you should destroy prior versions of your Will.

There are at least two very good reasons for destroying prior versions of your Will. First, beneficiaries who received a greater bequest under a prior Will might see your prior Will and have their feelings unnecessarily hurt. Or worse, they may decide to challenge the later Will.

The second reason for destroying prior Wills is to eliminate potential confusion. One decedent whose Estate I represented left numerous holographic wills, some of which did not have a date. In addition to uncertainty over which Will had been executed last, there was some concern that he lacked testamentary capacity when he prepared some of his Wills. Beneficiaries who would have fared better under prior Wills were active participants in protracted litigation regarding his Estate.

Read more…

Rule One demands of us the determination to eliminate gray; to never invest in a business that we don’t fully know.  We keep it ‘black and white’.  

By ‘black and white’ I mean we insist on clarity.  Unfortunately, Clarity is a subjective experience.  When I was teaching my kids to hunt, I taught them to make sure they could see and identify what they were going to shoot at.  They had to know it was a deer and not something else.  With a weapon that can kill there is no room for gray uncertainty.  You have to know.  But only they can see what they see and know what they know.  I can see its a deer but if, from where they are sitting, they don’t see it clearly, they can’t shoot.  

Rule One investing is like that.  I can eliminate all the businesses about which I am uncertain.  This may be a different list than yours.  Rule One demands certainty but that certainty is sure to be subjective.   We try to

Read more…