BarbriSFCourseDetails

Course Details

This CLE/CPE course will provide tax attorneys, CPAs, and enrolled agents with a comprehensive and practical guide to navigating the process of appealing an IRS denial of a penalty abatement request. The panel will provide an overview of the significant foreign information reporting forms, their associated penalties, and FBAR abatement requests. The panel will offer useful tools for compiling and submitting the appeal correspondence and documentation.

Faculty

Description

The IRS employs strict standards for determining whether a taxpayer qualifies for penalty abatement for failure to file required foreign information returns and FBARs.

In recent years, the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration issued a report showing that IRS controls over penalties were deficient, leading to incorrect abatement in a large percentage of tested cases. As a result, the IRS has increased scrutiny over foreign penalty abatement requests.

IRS audits have not become more manageable. Once chosen, a taxpayer can expect to face a probing investigation, potentially leading to stiff penalties. Critical to navigating the FBAR and foreign information reporting forms appeals process is understanding the legal standards, the potential penalty level, arguments (legal and otherwise), and evidence to assemble. Counsel and advisers must prepare to present a comprehensive and cohesive case for taxpayers seeking to appeal their FBAR and other penalties.

Listen as our experienced panel of advisers provides a practical guide to navigating the process for handling penalty abatement denials. Attendees will receive an insider's look at how leading practitioners resolve complicated international controversies.

Outline

  1. Not just the FBAR: a review of the foreign reporting forms
  2. The administrative remedy paths: proactive and reactive
  3. The review standards: willfulness and reasonable cause

Benefits

The panel will review these and other key issues:

  • Recognize approaches to resolve international controversies
  • Identify the types of lesser-known foreign assets transactions that trigger significant penalty risks
  • Determine legal and practical issues that can erupt in these cases and approaches to mitigate those risks
  • Discuss the relevant law applied during audit and appeal

NASBA Details

Learning Objectives

After completing this course, you will be able to:

  • Ascertain approaches to resolve international controversies
  • Identify the types of lesser-known foreign assets transactions that trigger significant penalty risks
  • Recognize relevant law applied during audit and appeal

  • Field of Study: Taxes
  • Level of Knowledge: Intermediate
  • Advance Preparation: None
  • Teaching Method: Seminar/Lecture
  • Delivery Method: Group-Internet (via computer)
  • Attendance Monitoring Method: Attendance is monitored electronically via a participant's PIN and through a series of attendance verification prompts displayed throughout the program
  • Prerequisite: Three years+ law or accounting firm experience at mid-level within the organization, interpreting or preparing complex tax forms and schedules for domestic and multinational businesses; supervisory authority over other attorneys/tax staff. Knowledge and understanding of foreign information filing requirements and penalties for non-compliance; familiarity with IRS processes for penalty abatement requests and appeals of IRS penalties.

Strafford Publications, Inc. is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of Accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE Credits. Complaints regarding registered sponsons may be submitted to NASBA through its website: www.nasbaregistry.org.

IRS Approved Provider

Strafford is an IRS-approved continuing education provider offering certified courses for Enrolled Agents (EA) and Tax Return Preparers (RTRP).