Coming Up…
 
Summer at Trowbridge means slight schedule changes. Most of our tax staff enjoy alternating Fridays off during July and August. This ensures that there is always someone here to assist you!
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SAGE Summit 2016 - Partner Retreat in Chicago

Last week, the firm partners and CEO headed to the beautiful city of Chicago for their annual Partner's Retreat at the Sage Summit Conference.

The conference is an intensive week of panels, workshops, and lectures on leadership, business strategy, and development. Sage included famous guest speakers known for their business prowess, including Sir Richard Branson, well know "Sharks" Robert Herjavec and Daymond John, as well as Sage CEO Stephen Kelly. 

They also had panel discussions with  Gwyneth Paltrow, discussing her brand "Goop", Zoe Deschanel, explaining the start of her business HelloGiggles, Ashton Kutcher addressing his tech startup investments, and Yancey Strickler, co-founder of Kickstarter!



Trowbridge Baby Boom: Tax Deductions! 

For just over a year now, Trowbridge has been experiencing a Baby Boom! 

Many of our team have been choosing to start or grow their families in our Toronto office. So we’ve had a few work-style baby showers for all to participate in and have tried to share in the joy. We’ve had a variety of games where anyone can win gift cards, we’ve written fun or witty sayings on little wee diapers for the new parent to take home, and we’ve supplied gifts for each of the new parents, including a Trowbridge-green coloured ‘onesie’ (shown above) with our version of a funny (and true) statement - “Tax Deduction”!   

Baby number one started off the Trowbridge Baby Boom in June 2015 and that was Baby boy Jackson! First-time Dad Jason, our Director of Finance, couldn’t be more proud and happy! It’s been a fun year that went by very quickly, and now Mom and Dad can hardly keep up with the little guy! 

Next came Baby girl Emily born to Jen, our Expatriate Senior Tax Associate, in March 2016! Jen is absolutely loving the new Mom experience and Emily is such a happy little baby. Jen and her husband think that little Emily will be crawling very soon and are excited for new adventures! 

We then had a double baby shower for Margesh and Todd, each expecting baby boys. 

First up was Margesh’s new Baby boy, Aadit, born in April 2016. Margesh, our Senior Bookkeeper, is now extra busy at home, with a new baby and big brother Aarav, who’s almost 3 years old. Fortunately he and his wife have had some help with parents visiting. With two little boys, I’m sure they’ll need all the extra hands they can get! 

Next to arrive was Corporate partner, Todd’s Baby boy, Christopher, born in May. Big sister Isabella, who’s 5 years old, is very happy to help welcome her new baby brother. It’s been an interesting time as baby Christopher arrived just before Todd’s busy, deadline season in June. However, Christopher has been a wonderful baby and helping Mom and Dad through the process and all the challenges. 

Finally, but surely not the last, we’re waiting to hear about the arrival of Expatriate Tax Manager Christine’s Baby boy! He was due Aug 4th, and is still deciding about when he’ll make his grand entrance into the world. The brand new Mom and Dad are anxiously waiting to have him in their arms and keeping them up at night!

Well, that’s our baby news…for now. We have a growing team and now some of our team members are growing their families.

We wish them all the best and joy as they endeavor down the path that will change their lives forever!

Photo: Streets of Chicago at Sunset, credits to Debra Dowdell

Staff Summer Socials at Trowbridge Offices

Throughout the Summer months, each of the three Trowbridge Offices host a staff social for some fun in the sun - or in the case of the upcoming Toronto Office social, fun on a nighttime dinner cruise around the Lake Ontario Harbourfront! 


The Long Arm of the IRS

By Lionel Chen

       It used to be that the phrase “The Long Arm of the Law” applied to catching fugitives but recently in this decade the term “fugitive” can be replaced with “U.S. taxpayer”.  Since the passing of Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in March 2010 in order to catch U.S. tax cheats who hide assets and money offshore, many U.S. taxpayers abroad have voluntarily filed tax returns and reports to the appropriate U.S. authorities to divulge their foreign assets and pay any taxes owing to avoid hefty civil penalties and in some extreme cases, criminal penalties.  Unfortunately, FATCA not only affects U.S. citizens and U.S. resident aliens with foreign investments, it also affects many foreign individual and businesses with U.S. source income resident in countries that have agreed to FATCA such as Canada, the U.K and China.

       Absent an exception under U.S. tax law or U.S. tax treaty, a foreign (non-U.S.) person or entity that has any U.S. source income is generally subject to U.S. income tax.  There are two types of taxable U.S. source income: 1) fixed, determinable, annual, or periodical (FDAP) income, and 2) effectively connected income (ECI).  To avoid getting too technical, for simplicity reasons let us define ECI as U.S. source business income and FDAP as all other U.S. source income excluding gains from property.

       Even before FATCA, the IRS had implemented methods of making foreign (non-U.S.) taxpayers pay U.S. income tax through a withholding tax system in which the U.S. tax laws automatically “volunteers” the U.S. payer of income to become the withholding agent of the IRS.  A withholding agent that fails to withhold on payments to foreign recipients could be liable for the withholding tax.  Even if the withholding agent is caught by the IRS and forced to pay the withholding tax that it failed to collect and remit, it does not relieve the foreign payee from being liable for the same withholding tax.  In those cases, the IRS could potentially receive a windfall in collecting the withholding tax twice.

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WANDERTRUST is a newsletter compiled with a digest of some timely and relevant news links or articles selected for the WANDERTRUST newsletter from thousands of sources by an independent newsletter consultant. Trowbridge Professional Corporation or any associated company does not endorse any of the advertised products and services. Opinions expressed in the articles or news links are those of the author and not of Trowbridge/associated company. Trowbridge does contribute an article written by a variety of staff members, but does not provide any tax advice or consulting in these articles. No information contained in any articles, whether sourced or provided by Trowbridge/associated companies, is to be considered tax advice, and we strongly recommend that you consult with a tax professional.