More than 7,500 Americans rushed to take advantage of a the opportunity for tax amnesty offered through a special voluntary disclosure program for offshore accounts that ended last Thursday. But what can you do if you didn’t come forward to the IRS last week and still need to declare your offshore account?

If a U.S. taxpayer or U.S. resident was not able to file the voluntary disclosure memorandum by the October 15th filing deadline to qualify for tax amnesty, there is a heightened need for that account holder to get expert tax help as soon as possible.

All offshore reporting activity is being managed thru the IRS’s Criminal Investigation Division (CID).  The Foreign Bank Account Reporting (FBAR) penalties for not filing and meeting the amnesty guidelines are severe:

• FBAR penalties can amount to 200-300% of the asset value of the account.
• If CID makes a referral to the U.S. Department of Justice for felony indictment, the criminal sanctions can be as much as 10 years in prison.

Depending on the magnitude of the penalties, it may be appropriate to seek redress through the penalty abatement process - this may be an effective approach to minimize or reduce the impact of these penalties.

Every year the government loses billions in tax revenues from offshore accounts held by Americans. According to The New York Times, The Obama administration is determined to smoke wealthy tax cheats out of their offshore hiding places. In recent months, dozens of formerly uncooperative sanctuaries, from Singapore to Liechtenstein, have rushed to sign on to new multinational agreements on information sharing. The Treasury Department is negotiating with several countries to establish common protocols to exchange information about foreign accounts. The Internal Revenue Service is opening offices in Beijing, Sydney and Panama and opening a new unit to investigate evasion by high-net-worth individuals, at home and overseas.

Due to the severity of the financial penalties and criminal implications, it is not in the account holders best interest to wait for the IRS to approach them.  Even though the amnesty deadline has passed, the account holder should retain specialized tax representation now.

Effective representation means that your tax attorney, tax resolution specialist or CPA will take over all communications with the IRS, making the required disclosures, filing FBAR reports and amending tax returns typically for 2003 thru 2008.

Our team of tax attorneys, tax resolution specialists and CPAs can help you mitigate the severe IRS penalties and criminal sanctions  for offshore account holders. Don’t wait for IRS to come after you, we can help you resolve your IRS problems before it’s too late. Call us at 866-IRS-PROBLEMS (1-866-477-7762) or for a free consultation.

More Tax Help, IRS News and Tax Relief Tips:

1. Tax Help For UBS Account Holders Seeking IRS Tax Relief For Tax Evasion Charges
2. Tax Help for Offshore Account Holders Pulling Out of Swiss Banks: Don’t Fear the IRS - Get Expert Offshore Tax Evasion Defense
3. How to Get Tax Help with Your Offshore Bank Account if You Missed the FBAR Amnesty Deadline for IRS Voluntary Disclosure

Tags: Foreign Bank Account Reporting (FBAR), offshore accounts, Penalty Abatement, tax amnesty, tax attorney, tax help, Voluntary Disclosure

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 9:57 am and is filed under Offshore Tax Settlements, Penalty Abatement, Tax news and tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.