ABOUT US
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Our director, Barron Harper - www.taxbarron.com - is foremost an International Tax Preparer who works with American Expatriates. This work requires a comprehensive understanding of how the Internal Revenue Service both taxes and treats American citizens residing abroad. In recent years, the Service has stepped up its filing requirements with new stricter penalties being applied to citizens who do not comply with IRS filing requirements. Americans living abroad who are unaware that they should be filing an annual return are exposing themselves unnecessarily to being caught and penalized.
A consequence of requiring US persons in foreign countries to prepare and file difficult tax and information returns while exposed to heavy-handed penalties for noncompliance has been the rising tide in expatriation. As a result we have specialized in this arena both to help Americans abroad understanding the requirements and consequences of expatriating as well as provide the necessary assistance in completing the process. Having prepared tax and information returns for Americans abroad for some 20 years, Barron is considered to be experienced, competent and reliable in this highly complex area of International Taxation. He is a graduate of North Texas State University (University of North Texas) from where he earned his MS in Accounting in 1985, specializing in U.S. Taxation. During and after his education, he worked in public accounting in Dallas, Texas, and in Santa Fe, New Mexico, before arriving in Europe in 1992. He has also worked as an International Accountant, a Professor of Accounting, and part time in the pursuit of Scholarship. As an Accountant, he has served business communities in Texas, New Mexico, Spain and Portugal. In his Professorial role, he has taught Accounting disciplines at European University. Finally he researches and writes on current issues and historical issues for publication. In recent years, he has been awarded the International Quality Crown Award (2003) and membership in the prestigious Who's Who Historical Society (2002-03). He was also inducted into the 2003 Edition of the International WHO'S WHO of Professionals. He has also received Certificates of Appreciation for Income and Estate Tax presentations in Spain and Portugal. He is also a member of a special task force with American Citizens Abroad. Our colleague, Bruce Curry, is a Certified Public Accountant who has many years experience as a Chief Financial Officer, a Financial Analyst and a Controller. He has overseen multimillion dollar budgets, boosted a client's gross income 900% from $470,000 to $4,320,000 in four years, negotiated a $10 million loan for new plant construction, implemented a cash management program that earned another client $1.5m in annual cash flow, and provided high-level trend analyses and performance metrics to business managers to facilitate strategic planning. In recent years Bruce has applied his analytical skills to preparing information returns for the American expatriate community in a manner of due diligence that has contributed to highly polished filings and avoidance of penalties. |
People who do not trust one another will end up cooperating only under a system of formal rules and regulations, which have to be negotiated, agreed to, litigated, and enforced, sometimes by coercive means. This legal apparatus, serving as a substitute for trust, entails what economists call 'transaction costs.' Widespread distrust in a society, in other words, imposes a kind of tax on all forms of economic activity, a tax that high-trust societies do not have to pay. ... (The U.S.) also pays substantially more than does Europe or Japan to its lawyers, so that its citizens can sue one another. Both of these costs, which amount to a measurable percentage of gross domestic product annually, constitute a direct tax imposed by the breakdown of trust in society.” - Francis Fukuyama |
