Offshore Banking

[sabray]

I left Annapolis on Monday morning sailed to and through the c and d canal. I had an alert message from the bank which was weird.Tuesday morning I chech in to see what's happening. Turns out that the IRS has seized my bank account. I have no money like zap gone. The IRS which has been very good to work with goes oops yeh we shouldn't have done that our bad.they are trying to set it straight. Now my bank is refusing to release the levy because the IRS didn't check some boxes. IRS resends the form but it's in Massachusetts and has to be sent to California then maybe idiot bank will give me my money. I called my branch manager. Can you help me I tell the story . No he can't help. I have to call legal in California. I explain I'm off cape may it us very hard for me to make calls.your my branch manager can't you just watch over this and make sure everyone behaves. No he says we are a branch but we dont provide personalized service. Mistake he knows I'm miles out in the water and can't storm into his pizzley bailed out bank. Meanwhile checks are bouncing fees are accumulating and I'm sailing. This should have been in the joke thread. Now I'm wondering I didn't ask the IRS if they advisement seized anything else like my house. Will I return in 3 weeks to house with seizure notices pasted to the door? This all happened because my broker misfiled a form. The IRS got it in there heads that I made 2 million in unreported income and now owe them 650,000 dollars. They are reviewing the information very slowly. So slowly that they exceeded their time line. A computer somewhere saw that it want resolved and told another computer to take everything I own. A friggin nightmare. That's all for now from s/v seized property. Once sv sabray.

[sarafina]

Well Damn. That sucks SOMETHING...

It slays me how when WE make mistakes there is NO forgiveness or leeway... but when THEY screw up it's 'suck it up, buttercup'

Here's hoping your issues get resolved with something less than glacial slowness...

and get a new broker maybe?

[sabray]

You know what I worked real hard to do this and take this vacation. I damn near cried Tuesday morning when I realized what was happening. But it will work out and I'm lucky in sailing 6 miles off little egg inlet now a tad under 5 knots. The sun is setting. It's a wonderful place to be

[sarafina]

I do, and good on you for taking a healthy perspective ; -)

Enjoy that sunset...

[zopi]

Sue the broker for fees and heartache...they will settle but quick..if they do not report them to the ftc...having had brokers screw up, I consider them all to be cannon fodder...
Good luck man.

[Doodles]

Do you have a CPA or tax attorney that you work with? As a CPA myself I can tell you this may be very difficult to work out and trying to do it yourself from a remote location makes it even more so. Who does your taxes? Turn this over to them and let the professionals handle it. And please do not tell me you do them yourself. You obviously have a nice size boat and a brokerage account, so you have the means to afford professional help.

Sorry this happen and it shouldn't have, but don't dig a deeper hole by trying to sort it out yourself.

[Kapena]

Start with a good lawyer. Sue the IRS. They are the root cause while the bank is being careful. It's amazing the Gestapo ability of the IRS to seize EVERY asset you have, including your boat and retirement accounts, without going to court to do so.

[Kettlewell]

This is one reason I use small hometown banks where they actually know me. One of them the bank president was my wife's babysitter when they were kids. I can walk into the bank and cash any check from any one, or walk out with a loan for many thousands of $$ just on my signature and say so. They don't even bounce checks for anyone in my family--they just call us up to see what is the matter having already taken care of it for us with an instant loan. There are advantages to using a small, local bank where you can call and speak to a human being who probably knows where you live, or used to, and who you have done business with before.

[zeehag]

kick their sorry beeehinds and make ready for soon.. take care of bizness and fly ... gooodluck , svseized property--ps dont tell em yer in town so ye can keep yer boat......

[zopi]

Originally Posted by zeehag

kick their sorry beeehinds and make ready for soon.. take care of bizness and fly ... gooodluck , svseized property--ps dont tell em yer in town so ye can keep yer boat......

Yeah...I would see to it that the boat is in a very anonymous location...like grand cayman...

[David M]

Hire an Enrolled Agent. Some CPA's and lawyers are also EA's but many are not. An EA does not need to be a CPA or a lawyer. Who can represent you before the IRS is restricted to EA's.

An Enrolled Agent (or EA) is a tax professional recognized by the United States federal government to represent taxpayers in dealings with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Enrolled agent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

My wife is an EA.

[David_Old_Jersey]

Tell them a) it is a mistake and b) you paid anyway - and ask for a refund

[sabray]

Just passed through hellsgate a few hours ago checked and funds were restored. This seemed pretty simple to fix but your advice is good I'm turning this over to the pros. I also was thinking about small town banks. Was surprised that this large bank had no means of customer support.
Had a great sail up the coast until the Canadian high slammed down and steeped up the nastiest Jersey chop right off barnegat. This can be a real nasty stretch of water.usually if it's on shore. I didn't expect a 25 to 30 knot North wind to crest these 6 to 8 foot steep waves with a short period. boat did great and now anchored in long island sound. Thanks for the advice and support .

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by sabray

Just passed through hellsgate a few hours ago checked and funds were restored. This seemed pretty simple to fix but your advice is good I'm turning this over to the pros. I also was thinking about small town banks. Was surprised that this large bank had no means of customer support.
Had a great sail up the coast until the Canadian high slammed down and steeped up the nastiest Jersey chop right off barnegat. This can be a real nasty stretch of water.usually if it's on shore. I didn't expect a 25 to 30 knot North wind to crest these 6 to 8 foot steep waves with a short period. boat did great and now anchored in long island sound. Thanks for the advice and support .

That's great news! Glad to hear you are going to get so pro help in the future as well.

[Tony B]

The problem was not the fault of the IRS. If you have to get mad at someone, get mad at the broker. As for the IRS having your money, it sometimes can take several months to get it allstraightened out. If they took what you owe them, I seriously doubt that you will get any of it back. It will be credited against your account though. If they owe you money, you will get your money eventually (several months) but they will add interest onto it. I was surprised once when I finally got my overpayment money back from them and it was a higher amount than they owed me - they automatically added interest to it.