Fox Rothschild LLP Partner Matthew D. Lee authored an updated version of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act Answer Book, which was originally published by Practising Law Institute in 2015. This new edition addresses recent changes to FATCA regulations relating to compliance and verification procedures for a variety of entities, including sponsoring entities of foreign financial institutions; non-financial foreign entities; trustees of trustee-documented trusts; registered deemed-compliant FFIs; and financial institutions that implement consolidated compliance programs. The…

Originally published by Practising Law Institute in 2015, this new edition addresses recent changes to FATCA regulations relating to compliance and verification procedures for a variety of entities, including sponsoring entities of foreign financial institutions; non-financial foreign entities; trustees of trustee-documented trusts; registered deemed-compliant FFIs; and financial institutions that implement consolidated compliance programs. The update examines revisions to the responsible officer compliance certification process and the FATCA registration and renewal process. It also describes recent…

The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced today that it has launched a new Global Investigations Division (GID), which will be responsible for implementing targeted investigation strategies to combat illicit finance threats and related crimes, both domestically and internationally. Matthew Stiglitz, a former Principal Deputy Chief in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, will lead GID. GID will build upon FinCEN’s existing authorities under the Bank Secrecy Act, including Section 311 of the…

The Internal Revenue Service announced today that it has begun mailing what it calls “educational letters” to taxpayers with cryptocurrency transactions who potentially failed to report income and pay the resulting tax from such transactions, or did not report their transactions properly. The IRS started sending these letters to taxpayers last week. By the end of August, more than 10,000 taxpayers will receive these letters. The IRS said it obtained the names of these taxpayers…

Earlier this week, the Internal Revenue Service’s Large Business & International Division announced six more compliance campaigns, bringing the total number of campaigns announced to date to a whopping 59. These campaigns reflect LB&I’s movement toward issue-based examinations and a compliance process in which LB&I decides which tax issues that present risk require a response in the form of one or multiple treatment streams to achieve compliance objectives. This approach is intended to make the…

Earlier this week, the Attorneys General of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut sued the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service challenging a new IRS rule that would preclude individuals in those states from claiming deductions for charitable contributions to local governments. This lawsuit is the latest chapter in the battle over the “SALT cap,” enacted as part of the 2017 tax reform legislation which imposes a $10,000 annual limitation on the deduction for…