Offshore Bank Account Holders Beware As IRS Turns Up Enforcement Heat Around the Globe

Leonid Zaltsberg has lived an extraordinary life. The 76-year-old from Milltown, N.J., played for the Soviet Union’s national soccer team, competed in the World Cup, and now works with Ukraine’s national team.

He’s also now part of another extraordinary group: U.S. tax cheats who’ve been convicted of evasion following the release of account information from Swiss bank UBS.

Zaltsberg pleaded guilty in New Jersey to subscribing to a false tax return, admitting that he concealed more than $2 million in a UBS account. What’s more, Zaltsberg also admitted that, as with other U.S. taxpayers who kept secret accounts in Switzerland, he did not disclose the account on the IRS’s required form, known as a Report of Foreign Bank or Financial Accounts.

For that, Zaltsberg will pay dearly. He faces up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. In addition, Zaltsberg will pay a civil penalty equal to 50 percent of his highest Swiss bank balance during the period from 2000 to 2007.

Zaltsberg’s guilty plea, his possible prison sentence and his substantial civil penalty were made possible only through a historic deal between the Swiss and U.S. governments that effectively pierced the once impenetrable Swiss banking veil.

That deal, which came with a $780 million fine to UBS for helping U.S. taxpayers evade income taxes, forces the Swiss to release the details of more than 4,450 account holders suspected of evading U.S. income taxes.

For a man such as Zaltsberg, the news is that he’s not alone. There could 4,449 others who will receive similar punishments.

But for U.S. taxpayers who may be using other means to hide their monetary assets from the IRS, Zaltsberg’s prosecution and agreement with the Swiss government should be terrifying.

Here’s why: By piercing the Swiss banking veil, the U.S. government shows its ability to take down the world’s largest offshore banking center — once long viewed as the globe’s most secure tax shelter. And now that the Swiss tax shelter has been pried opened, the U.S. government is going after tax shelters in other nations. At the top of the list are banks in Singapore and Hong Kong.

In fact, the U.S. Department of Justice is opening a criminal inquiry into Asian clients of HSBC Holdings, Europe’s largest bank.

Reuters, the financial newswire, quoted unnamed IRS officials in July saying the tax-collecting agency expects a significant amount of tax cases to come out of Asia.

Those who follow the use of offshore tax shelters say Asia benefited from Switzerland’s vulnerability, with many bank account holders moving their money to places like Singapore and Hong Kong as U.S. officials put heats on Swiss banks and government officials.

Ask yourself: Are they following your money?

Contact out special division for overseas tax evasion defense TODAY! If you are in IRS trouble for undisclosed foreign funds, call our office at (888) 699-7630 for a free, no-risk tax resolution consultation or visit www.taxresolution.com.

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