Third Annual Tax Seminar Held by IACCGH and GOPIO

By Vanshika Vipin

HOUSTON: As omnipresent as the air we breathe and yet as unwanted as the air we exhale, Taxes are an integral part of our lives. As cumbersome as they come, Taxes are essential for the existence of a modern day society. However, in the last few years, the Tax code in the US has been getting more and more complicated and its no surprise that a good CPA is a knight in a shining armor for most of us.

For three years now, the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston (IACCGH) and the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) have been bringing forth these knights in shining armor to de-code and de-mystify the tax code. The tax seminar this year was held at India House on Saturday, February 22. Aimed at easing the mind of the South Asian Immigrant community, the topic for this years seminar was “Overseas Assets and How it affects Tax Filings” besides the well appreciated and informative updates for the 2014 Tax year.

The seminar was chaired by a panel of six knowledgeable and competent CPA’s including Mike Jain, Kershaw Khumbatta, Atul Kothari, Mahesh Desai, Swapan Dhairyawan and Imitiaz Munshi. The seminar was moderated by Ajit Thakur. With the tax seminar becoming an annual feature, it was no surprise that more than 200 people attended this event.

The seminar started off by a welcome note from Jagdip Ahluwalia of IACCGH and Surender Trehan from GOPIO. The attendees were then addressed by Swapan Dhairyawan who introduced the need for such seminars for the community and urged the attendees to take full advantage of the knowledge base of the highly experience CPA. Incidentally Swapan Dhairyawan was also the Program Chair.

This was followed by some in-depth presentations on various topics from the experts. Kershaw Khumbatta presented a very informative session on “Changes to 2013 Tax laws … Individual and Business”.  Mahesh Desai then presented the well-appreciated topic of “FBAR and declaration of Foreign Assets”. The audience then got a chance to listen to Mike Jain talk about the “Changes to the 2014 Individual Taxes”. Going back to the taxation over overseas assets, Swapan Dhairyawan provided an in-depth analysis of “Overseas Voluntary Disclosure Program and Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act”. He also made sure he mentioned about the recent Phone scam, in which the caller pretends to be the IRS and asks for money. “ Always note, the IRS never calls, they send a letter” added Dhairyawan.

In the last few years, the US senate and house has seen passionate debate over the new healthcare law popularly known as “Obama-care”. Imtiaz Munshi struck a chord with the audience in his presentation and interpretation of the “Obama Care Law”. His opening  line, “Hello, Obama Care – the Republicans and Obama Cares – the Democrats,” immediately caught the audience interest.  Atul Kothari then gave a detailed presentation on “Individual Tax Planning Techniques”. His key point was to always declare your income. The series of presentations were informative and educational for everyone in the audience. There were a lot of practical tips given by the CPA’s.

The presentation session was followed by a qick tea and snacks break and then a Question & Answer session which was efficiently moderated by Ajit Thakur. During the Q&A session the audience cleared their doubts about taxation issues. All questions were duly and aptly answered by the panel.

The program concluded with a vote of thanks by Jagdip Ahluwalia and with the presentation of plaques to the panelists as a token of appreciation for their support to the community.

The Speakers PowerPoint presentations will be available on the Chamber website at www.iaccgh.com