Tax & Accounting Blog

The official source for the federal government per diem rates allowable for expense reimbursement in business travel away from home within the continental United States (CONUS) is the online information on the U.S. General Services Administration webpage  http://www.gsa.gov/portal/category/21287. On this webpage, you can also find links to the Department of Defense per diem rates … Read More

In December 2011, the IRS released the new Form 8938 used to report specified foreign financial assets. The form was released in response to the temporary regulations issued for IRC 6038D, as part of the larger crackdown on taxpayers with under reported foreign assets. The new form is filed with the taxpayer’s individual return if their specified … Read More

The IRS recently released the report of an SEP Plan Compliance Check project conducted by the Employee Plans Compliance Unit. The compliance check found numerous errors made by SEP plan sponsors and the financial institutions that file information returns to report SEP-IRA contribution information. As part of this project, the IRS contacted financial institutions and plan sponsors for … Read More

The IRS defines withholding agent very broadly. Every U.S. or foreign person who controls, holds custody of, receives, disposes of, or pays any item of income to a foreign person that is subject to NRA withholding is a withholding agent. A withholding agent includes (without limitation) individuals, corporations, partnerships, trusts, associations or any other entity … Read More

The IRS Oversight Board issued its annual report to Congress for 2011 in June (posted June 5, 2012). The report notes that the estimated net tax gap grew nearly $100 billion from 2001 (when the gap was last estimated) to 2006. Of particular interest is the Board’s assessment of the tax gap and IRS’ efforts to … Read More

The federal withholding and reporting rules for payments for personal services made to foreign nationals depend on the recipient’s federal tax residency status – resident alien or nonresident alien. Compensation payments to resident aliens are subject to the same rules for withholding and reporting as are such payments to U.S.citizens. These payments are not subject … Read More