Allen Barron is celebrating our 26th Anniversary in business this month. We wish to extend our deep appreciation to our clients and the San Diego business community for the opportunity to be of service over this period of rapid change in business and technology. As a single-source provider of legal, tax, accounting and business advisory services, Allen Barron provides savings to our customers through economies of scale while providing a more extensive and insightful perspective on the challenges faced in the San Diego business community and around the world.
A lot has changed in the past 26 years. Global financial transparency and recent modifications to the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) have rocked local, regional, national and international businesses and individuals alike. The requirements of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act or FATCA a decade ago, and resulting FBAR related reporting and compliance have revolutionized international banking and taxation. Banks and financial institutions around the world as well as sovereign tax authorities are providing extensive information regarding the accounts, balances and transactions of US taxpayers and businesses directly to the IRS.
After many years of cutbacks, the IRS has recently received a substantial infusion of budget ($80 billion) and invested in state-of-the-art computer systems and Artificial Intelligence (AI). This has solved one of the agency’s largest challenges: how to cull the voluminous data coming into the agency from around the world and compare that information with the tax returns of US taxpayers and entities? AI is another of those “game changers.”
The failure to come into FBAR compliance through disclosure programs such as the OVDP or the streamlined application exposes US taxpayers and foreign nationals who live and work in the US to draconian penalties and interest charges as well as the likelihood of criminal prosecution for tax evasion.
The impact of the financial crisis in 2008 has forever changed the nature of business in the United States and around the world. Never in recent history has business become more complicated or competitive. The impact of the internet and online business combined with global trade and labor impact has resulted in a much greater level of competition while reducing overall margins in many industries. It is important for businesses to implement systems and procedures to collect information at every point in the production, creation or manufacturing process to inform critical decision making as well as document expenses to reduce the impact of taxation.
In more recent years, we’ve endured a pandemic and now face a much more politically divided world, war in many sectors of the planet and significant signals from China regarding their own plans for expansion. Supply chains and economic factors alike face substantial head winds, and at the same time present tremendous opportunities.
We have experienced so many experiences over this journey as we reflect upon our 26th anniversary. After we rented our first office space, we turned to each other and said “ you know we don’t have any clients!!,” then the next day the phone rang and we were off to Taiwan on a large project.
We had as a client College Club, which was the precursor to Facebook. If it had been successful, it would have preceded Facebook by several years. We worked with D&K Engineering as they pursued the research and early designs of 3D printing and helped the company grow to ultimately be acquired for multiple millions of dollars. On any month we are actively working on over 100 clients, and our active client base is in the thousands. Allen Barron has become an industry knowledge leader, recently recognized by JD Supra as a “Reader’s Choice, Top Firm” here in 2024, and were invited to become members of IR Global ( and international professional organization) meeting internationally and interacting with and serving professionals worldwide.
At one point we were even contacted by one of the “Big 4” firms to provide expert advice on Saudi Arabian tax issues.
As we celebrate our 26th anniversary and work toward three decades of service to clients here in San Diego, across the Southwest and around the world we wish to thank our valued team of employees and managers, and the clients who we have been honored to serve for the past two and a half decades. As this team shared a harbor cruise here in San Diego this month, we celebrated all we’ve learned and discussed new paths as we help our clients to face the incredible rate of change and challenge in the coming years.
We look forward to working with you now and into the future as we support your efforts to grow and expand your business and its profitability as well as your personal wealth and estate.