Well, well, well.....it is truly the end of the 48th tax season of my life. Last night I did the final 5 FinCEN 114 efile reports that are now a permanent fixture of an American tax filer's life. I'm sure I did some of those I filed incorrectly. Most of the client-prepared forms were done incorrectly - what do you expect from a system incepted by the same computer experts who earlier in the year created www.healthcare.gov in the U.S. That's the Obamacare site which is taking US healthcare from 5th rank status to 3d rank status of healthcare where so much is paid but so little is given back to the taxpayer, in return.....
What a way to segue into questions about the Modi/Jaitley health care proposals that will be coming up soon (if all that I read is correct) in the new budget........
But we are not writing about that, my friends, No siree! This is a continuation of my prior essays. Call this one Letters, part II.
I provided a teaser at the end of my last tax episode; I mentioned two letters received that I would discuss in this missive. Alas, I have to renege on one of them, the one that came from the Swiss bank under duress from the investigative arms of the Internal Revenue Service. That one is an active matter in which I am currently involved - I can't truly do any good for anyone until this matter is resolved......but I promise you, if you keep reading my monthly articles, I promise, at some point in the future, to write about it!
The other ‘teaser letter' came from the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok as a message addressed to all U.S. citizens (or at least, all U.S. citizens in Thailand who are on the U.S. Embassy mailing list.
The letter stated the following: “To assist all taxpayers in meeting their foreign bank account reporting requirements, IRS is hosting a webinar: Internal Revenue Service Webinar on Reporting Foreign Financial Accounts on the Electronic FBAR .....Federal law requires U.S. citizens and resident aliens to report any worldwide income, including income from foreign trusts and foreign bank and securities accounts. ”
How refreshing to find an Embassy that cares! Neither the Embassy nor the consulates in China or Hong Kong sent anything out now or at any time in the past that I am aware of ........perhaps, though, they did not because I wonder the extent to which the IRS truly cares about ‘outreach' : This letter went out on 30 May for a 4 June webinar - when did the IRS decide to do a webinar; when did they inform the Embassies around the world......and perhaps most importantly, if the IRS was truly interested in reaching the people who have the obligation to file, why didn't they do re-broadcasts commensurate with making it easy for some of the estimated 7.6 million American expats and untold millions of other green card, tax filing individuals to listen - after all, a webinar about tax at 1am, local time, will truly not attract a whole lot of listeners!
Most of the 7.6 million overseas Americans have absolutely no idea that they have any filing obligations - Publication 54 - the IRS's writing specifically for those outside of the US - is, to be honest, well written and, by and large, understandable but who knows it even exists......and at the end of the day, it would be pretty damned difficult to find anyone of sound mind, no matter their nationality, who would voluntarily read anything about taxation - even my books which are a whole lot better and funnier than anything the government can come up with!
You've got to have ‘outreach' , first.....and that is something we haven't really seen at all.
Letter # 2 - from the people who brought us FinCEN, directly to me!!
O.K. We faced stark reality: the promised patches to the software we pay for from the largest US tax software company, were patches that did not work - they sincerely tried but their entire system is tied into efiling and my entire beliefs are in opposition to efiling, so difficulties were bound to arise, sooner or later..... so now that we've re-installed the software and the clients as they were before attempts to efile through Lacerte Software Corporation, we then went online to FinCEN.
W e started the slow, tedious, one-by-one process of efiling FinCEN 114. I had a problem right at the start, so I wrote an email:
From: Laurence Lipsher [mailto: prctaxman@yahoo.com ]
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2014 7:00 AM
To: BSA E-Filing Help
Subject: 679492 - I cannot get a 'ready to file' button to work
I am a CPA living and working in China. I have already sent in my own FinCEN114, twice......but I cannot get things to operate on the first client I have tried to enter.
The Signature, Save and Print buttons work. I did the electronic signature. I saved. But I cannot get either the validate or the ready to file buttons to work. I have over 100 FinCEN114s to file...... please help me!!!
Thank you - I await hearing from you!!
Laurence E. Lipsher, CPA
and two days later, I even got a response!!!!
Laurence,
You are receiving this e-mail in reference to your BSA E-Filing ticket (#00679492).
It can be a few reasons why this is happening. You first have to make sure that if you are using a PC you have to make sure the Adobe reader is version 9.5 or higher. Also make sure if you are using the IE (internet explorer)make sure it is not a 64 bit version and also that its not IE-11. Another thing to do is to locate your Adobe reader through your control panel --> programs or programs and features- locate the Adobe reader right click on it and choose change. Once you choose change it will automatically give you the option to repair it. Do so then after it completes have the PC restart over and try to save the PDF again on your computer as a different name (just change the name by adding a little change ) then try to submit that way if doesn't work please try to give us a call or email us. Thanks and have a great day!
Thank you,
BSA E-Filing Help Desk
Phone: 866-346-9478
8:00 am to 6:00 pm EST
<mailto: BSAEfilingHelp@fincen.gov > BSAEfilingHelp@fincen.gov <mailto: BSAEfilingHelp@fincen.gov >
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Don't you just love that ending: ‘Thanks and have a great day!' ???
I had a semi-great day: yes, I was absolutely delighted to receive a timely response from the government......but at this stage of life, I am an unabashedly unashamed computer luddite. Can someone translate for me in user-friendly English whatever it was they were trying to say to me?????
And then there are letters lost because of a computer crash
Lois Lerner, an IRS administrator who, with some others in her division (approving not for profit status of new applicants seeking this status for their entity) were charged with illegally dragging their feet in the process of approving some conservative political organizations for tax-free status. That she would likely have been the 'fall guy', taking the blame for those above her in rank was probably the reason why she refused to answer member of the US Congress at a hearing on the subject. That she did not face 'criminal' charges is surprising - the U.S. government is held harmless while it considers all of its overseas tax filers as criminals. Something is very, very wrong, here!
But now they've (and yes, that is the IRS I am referring to!) gone a step further in the arrogance of protecting themselves: all of Lerner's emails within the Service, an estimated 67,000 of them, between 2009-2013, have been lost because of a computer crash that could not be re-constructed by the best of the IRS techies (who probably erased it all, in the first place!). Do you honestly believe that a computer crash wiped out all of Ms Lerner's emails? If you do, there is a bridge crossing the East River, between Manhattan and Brooklyn that I'd love to sell to you for a real bargain price!
During the past five years, I have dealt directly with the IRS, with Hong Kong's IRD, and the State Administration of Taxation in China. Only the IRS seems to lose things. Only the IRS has consistently sent me or clients of mine incorrect letters. Only the IRS has lied to me. Frankly, I never thought I'd see the day but it is far more enjoyable and ethical working with the State Administration of Taxation than with the IRS!
(See Letter - 1) |
