Some important advice for those who use offshore brokers like Suretrader

I received the following in a detailed email from my CPA. As always, get your own tax advice, but I did want to put out some information excerpted from my CPA’s email:

As part of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act enacted in 2010, U.S. citizens and resident aliens living in the U.S. and holding specified foreign financial assets with an aggregate value exceeding either $50,000.00 ($100,000 if filing Married Filing Joint, (“MFS”)) on the last day of the taxable year, or $75,000.00 ($150,000 if filing MFJ) at any time during the taxable year, must report certain information about these assets on Form 8938.

Failing to file Form 8938 when required could result in a $10,000 penalty, with an additional penalty up to $50,000 for continued failure to file after IRS notification, the IRS noted. A 40 percent penalty on any understatement of tax attributable to non-disclosed assets can also be imposed.

Just keep that in mind if you have decided to open up an account at SureTrader after Timothy Sykes recommended them.

[Edit 4/16/2012: This page on the IRS website indicates a significantly lower, $10,000 threshold for reporting foreign accounts on a different form, Form TDF 90-22.1]

Disclosure: I have no connection to SureTrader. I have an ongoing business relationship with Tim Sykes that is explained in my terms of use that is incorporated by reference into this post; you can find all my disclaimers and disclosures there as well.

4 thoughts on “Some important advice for those who use offshore brokers like Suretrader”

  1. I sent my CPA an email asking the same questions basically, I am interested in opening an account there. I trust yours and Tim’s opinions a great deal (even though you’d tell me not to trust anyone) so I feel safe with a small account there.
    Sounds almost to good to be true having another broker, one that doesn’t require an insane amount of money to open an account (2,000.00 min), and has shares of hard to borrow stocks to short. I haven’t sent anything yet, reading Tim’s emails it seems they’re “justifiably” busy, but I’ll get-r-done eventually.

    Are you ready to release possible lifetime member cost yet, a possible email so I can prepare? Of course I understand if you wan’t to release it in your blog.

    Looking forward to it in any case, take care.

  2. We’ll see about that, Preston. I still have a few details to work out. Also, frankly, I don’t think you should be looking to give me any money unless you suddenly found more time.

  3. As always, and one of the reasons I would give you money, you’re a very decent guy and someone I can and have learned from. I also think you’re a damn good trader that’s just cracked the glass with a hell of a future in front of you.

    My company upgraded my laptop and it took some doing but I got them to let me download my platform on it, seems they have tighter restrictions than before on outside software. I also am working 4-10’s now(40) hours a week with Fridays off, of course they’re meetings and field walks but I have a lot of computer time as well. I will still have the occasional plant outage where I work 6 days a week for a few weeks, but I’ll work around that.

Leave a Reply to admin Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please complete the formula below to prove that you are human * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.