Talking Tax15 Nov 2023

Inside Malta Pension Promoters' Effort to Outsmart IRS

For more than a year, a group of wealth management advisers met regularly to devise strategies to defend their wealthy clients' keeping their riches in individual retirement arrangements based in Malta. The pension plans—which emerged out of a loophole in a 2011 tax treaty between the US and the Mediterranean island nation widely seen as a tax haven—involved a cottage industry of advisers, accountants, and attorneys to facilitate transactions that allowed cash, business interests, and several types of income to go untaxed. The plans were added to IRS's "Dirty Dozen" list of dubious tax schemes in July 2021. But participants in the participants' monthly Zoom meetings felt "the IRS was too simple, too lazy, or too stupid to figure out what we were doing," according to one wealth adviser who attended them. That changed in June, when the IRS served hundreds of criminal summonses on taxpayers and Malta pension plan promoters. While no charges have been filed yet, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel has been vocal about cracking down on abusive tax schemes, especially now that his agency is infused with billions in new funding from last year's tax-and-climate law. In this week's episode of Talking Tax, host David Schultz talks to Bloomberg Tax reporter Michael J. Bologna about his story digging into the wealth advisers' meetings, how these Malta plans were marketed to high-net-worth individuals, and what's next for the IRS investigation. Do you have feedback on this episode of Talking Tax? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(436)

Corporate Tax Disclosures Let Investors Peer Into the Black Box

Investors are getting a lot more information about an area that’s been a mystery in the past: What goes into companies’ tax bills. The US, the European Union, and Australia all have new or forthcom...

15 Apr 11min

Accounting Firms Navigate Compensation as AI Tools Upend Work

Artificial intelligence is putting accounting firm leaders on alert for workers well-versed in using and managing the new tools as the industry invests heavily in modernizing workflows. Firms shou...

8 Apr 16min

IRS Pivots to Fill Holes in Tax Filing Season After DOGE Cuts

Time is running out to file your taxes to the IRS as the April 15 deadline approaches. But for the IRS, the work is only just beginning and it's off to a rocky start. Elon Musk's Department Gove...

1 Apr 13min

How Tax Administration Reforms Could Pass Congress This Year

Lawmakers in both chambers of Congress are taking a closer look at a range of bipartisan IRS administration changes. House tax writers have advanced several pieces of legislation that would fix pro...

25 Mar 11min

Washington's Novel Millionaires Tax Inches Closer to Reality

States are struggling to make up for revenue gaps in the wake of federal cuts and President Donald Trump's tax-and-spending law. In Washington state, lawmakers have answered the challenge with a n...

18 Mar 10min

Tax Filing Season Is Underway: Here's How It's Going So Far

There are about five weeks left in tax filing season — the busiest time of year for the IRS and tax preparers. IRS CEO Frank Bisignano told lawmakers earlier this month the tax season has so far be...

11 Mar 17min

States Still Decoupling From GOP Tax Law Deep Into Filing Season

Tax-filing season is well underway, and yet many states are still figuring out whether to conform to or decouple from provisions in last year's GOP-led tax overhaul, especially the deductions and othe...

4 Mar 12min

Tariff Refunds Would Threaten Tax, Transfer Pricing Headaches

The Supreme Court's decision to nix a wide swath of the Trump administration's tariffs comes with some big tax and transfer pricing questions for tax executives as companies battle to collect refunds ...

25 Feb 12min