California Offshore Asset Protection Attorney, Sebastian Gibson
Offshore Asset Protection - Voluntary Disclosure of Offshore Accounts Advice by California Offshore Asset Protection Attorneys
If you’ve been searching for California asset protection lawyers or offshore asset protection attorneys in California and haven’t found the asset protection attorney in which you can be confident when retaining a lawyer for your asset protection, voluntary disclosure, offshore trust protection and family limited partnership matters in California, Sebastian Gibson is the asset protection attorney you’ve been looking for.
California Asset Protection Lawyer
With over thirty years of experience handling international matters, with law degrees in both California and in Great Britain, and years of international experience in London as well as decades of experience in California, California asset protection lawyer Sebastian Gibson brings a wealth of experience to the table and was chosen one of the 2011 Top Lawyers by Palm Springs Life Magazine.
Offshore asset protection attorneys who recommended voluntary disclosure to their clients in 2009 made a good recommendation. Today, California offshore asset protection attorneys must explain to clients that they face the possibility of much greater IRS penalties should they choose to make a voluntary disclosure today. The alternative, however, of the very real possibility of criminal prosecution by the Department of Justice is considerably worse.
In 2009 the IRS announced a new amnesty program, the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program, which allowed taxpayers who had failed to disclose offshore bank accounts and unreported income to come clean, avoid some of the more hefty IRS fines and penalties and avoid prosecution. That program, after being briefly extended, however ended on October 15, 2009 with 14,000 taxpayers having applied for the program. Thousands more are believed to have made voluntary disclosures even after the program ended.
The program provided that the IRS would determine what taxes and interest were due reaching back to 2003, and assess either an accuracy or delinquency penalty for all incorrectly reported periods.
In lieu of all the penalties that the IRS could wield against the voluntary disclosing taxpayer, including the FBAR penalties, the IRS would assess an accuracy penalty of 20% of the tax owed, and an additional penalty of 20% of the largest balance in the foreign bank account or entity during the previous six years.
The program also provided that the 20% penalty could be reduced to 5% in cases where the taxpayer had not opened any accounts themselves and where there had not been any deposit or withdrawal activity during the period of time that the account or offshore entity was controlled by the taxpayer and where the taxpayer only owed interest and earnings on the assets. As it turned out, such reductions were rare.
To avoid such penalties, some taxpayers attempted to perform what was termed, "quiet disclosures" in which taxpayers with such issues wouldn’t formally notify the IRS of their past reporting failures and would simply amend their returns and pay additional taxes. As a California offshore asset protection lawyer, it was easy to see why some clients chose this strategy even if it was doomed for many of them.
In May of 2009, the IRS notified the world at large that it was tracking these "quiet disclosures" and that it had identified and would continue to identify amended tax returns reporting increases in income. The IRS further warned that those taxpayers making quiet disclosures should be aware of the risk of being examined and criminally prosecuted.
In compliance with IRS requirements, we must advise you that any U.S. federal tax advice or voluntary disclosure advice contained in this informational article is not intended by our California offshore asset protection attorneys to be used nor is it published in order for it to be used and you may not use it for the purpose of avoiding penalties or fines under the Internal Revenue Code. It is not intended to be used nor is it being published in order to promote, market or recommend any specific transaction, tax-related matter or estate planning tax scheme to any party.
California Asset Protection Attorney, Sebastian Gibson
Sought out to be a writer for California’s two largest and most prestigious legal newspapers, California asset protection attorney Sebastian Gibson’s articles have been published in the Los Angeles Daily Journal and the San Francisco Daily Journal. Today thousands and thousands of people visit this website and his blogs monthly for useful advice and thousands more follow him on Twitter for his humor.
One of the best asset protection attorneys for people in California to follow for his humor and wit, one of the funniest California asset protection lawyers as well as one of the top humorous California asset protection attorneys people follow on Twitter, California asset protection attorney Sebastian Gibson has been called "brilliant," "hilariously funny" and a "legend."
It matters more than you think who you call for your asset protection and other legal matters. When it matters most, call California asset protection lawyer Sebastian Gibson. When it’s time to hire a California asset protection attorney, hire a legend.
