Search This Blog

July 21, 2014

Top Ten Tax Facts if You Sell Your Home

Do you know that if you sell your home and make a profit, the gain may not be taxable? These rules apply even if your primary home is located abroad. That’s just one key tax rule that you should know. Here are ten facts to keep in mind if you sell your home this year.

1. If you have a capital gain on the sale of your home, you may be able to exclude your gain from tax. This rule may apply if you owned and used it as your main home for at least two out of the five years before the date of sale.

2. There are exceptions to the ownership and use rules. Some exceptions apply to persons with a disability. Some apply to certain members of the military and certain government and Peace Corps workers. For details see Publication 523, Selling Your Home.

3. The most gain you can exclude is $250,000. This limit is $500,000 for joint returns. The Net Investment Income Tax will not apply to the excluded gain.

4. If the gain is not taxable, you may not need to report the sale to the IRS on your tax return.

5. You must report the sale on your tax return if you can’t exclude all or part of the gain. And you must report the sale if you choose not to claim the exclusion. That’s also true if you get Form 1099-S, Proceeds From Real Estate Transactions. If you report the sale you should review the Questions and Answers on the Net Investment Income Tax on IRS.gov.

6. Generally, you can exclude the gain from the sale of your main home only once every two years.

7. If you own more than one home, you may only exclude the gain on the sale of your main home. Your main home usually is the home that you live in most of the time.

8. If you claimed the first-time homebuyer credit when you bought the home, special rules apply to the sale. For more on those rules see Publication 523.

9. If you sell your main home at a loss, you can’t deduct it.

10. After you sell your home and move, be sure to give your new address to the IRS. You can send the IRS a completed Form 8822, Change of Address, to do this.

July 12, 2014

Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures


Taxpayers who do not need to use either the OVDP (described in section 1 above) or the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures (set forth in section 2 above) to file delinquent or amended tax returns to report and pay additional tax, but who:

(1) have not filed a required Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) (FinCEN Form 114, previously Form TD F 90-22.1),
(2) are not under a civil examination or a criminal investigation by the IRS, and
(3) have not already been contacted by the IRS about the delinquent FBARs

should file the delinquent FBARs according to the FBAR instructions and include a statement explaining why the FBARs are filed late.  All FBARs are required to be filed electronically at FinCen.  On the cover page of the electronic form, select the reason for filing late.  If you are unable to file electronically, you may contact FinCEN's Regulatory Helpline at 1-800-949-2732 or 1-703-905-3975 (if calling from outside the United States) to determine possible alternatives to electronic filing.  
The IRS will not impose a penalty for the failure to file the delinquent FBARs if you properly reported on your U.S. tax returns, and paid all tax on, the income from the foreign financial accounts reported on the delinquent FBARs and you have not previously been contacted regarding an income tax examination or a request for delinquent returns for the years for which the delinquent FBARs are submitted.

FBARs will not be automatically subject to audit but may be selected for audit through the existing audit selection processes that are in place for any tax or information returns.

Delinquent International Information Return Submission Procedures


Taxpayers who do not need to use the OVDP (described in section 1 above) or the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures (set forth in section 2 above) to file delinquent or amended tax returns to report and pay additional tax, but who:

(1) have not filed one or more required international information returns,
(2) have reasonable cause for not timely filing the information returns,
(3) are not under a civil examination or a criminal investigation by the IRS, and
(4) have not already been contacted by the IRS about the delinquent information returns

should file the delinquent information returns with a statement of all facts establishing reasonable cause for the failure to file.  As part of the reasonable cause statement, taxpayers must also certify that any entity for which the information returns are being filed was not engaged in tax evasion.  If a reasonable cause statement is not attached to each delinquent information return filed, penalties may be assessed in accordance with existing procedures.

All delinquent international information returns other than Forms 3520 and 3520-A should be attached to an amended return and filed according to the applicable instructions for the amended return.  All delinquent Forms 3520 and 3520-A should be filed according to the applicable instructions for those forms.  A reasonable cause statement must be attached to each delinquent information return filed for which reasonable cause is being requested.

Information returns filed with amended returns will not be automatically subject to audit but may be selected for audit through the existing audit selection processes that are in place for any tax or information returns.

July 2, 2014

Pilots..IRS Tax Return Problems

Pilots, flight attendants and those that work on ships have complex US tax returns if they work abroad. Read more:

http://money.cnn.com/2014/07/01/pf/expat-taxes-irs/