Recently, more than 14,700 Americans with secret offshore accounts took the IRS up on their offer of tax amnesty for voluntary disclosure before the October 15th deadline, generating “billions of dollars” in new revenue for the IRS. Based on this success, the IRS has hired 800 personnel in the United States and bulked up their offices overseas to smoke out more tax revenue from offshore hiding places.
Taxpayers need to be
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Before the UBS deal of 2009 that sent overseas account holders scrambling to submit their voluntary disclosures before October 15th’s amnesty deadline, many people believed a number of IRS myths: that Swiss Bank Accounts are a “tax fortress” impenetrable by the IRS or that the IRS only cared about the “bigger fish.” However, as we have seen in the past couple of months, this is clearly not the case anymore.
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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
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The end is near for U.S. taxpayers who are using the world’s most famous tax haven to shield assets and avoid paying Uncle Sam his due.  If you have an offshore account where you’ve been evading taxes, you should be worried!  Did you know that the IRS is offering an extension to the voluntary disclosure program to come clean about undeclared income?
By Michael Rozbruch
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In one of the latest — and
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There been lots of tax news and buzz about the extension of the tax amnesty period for offshore account holders. But something that has not been in the spotlight quite as much is how you will need expert tax help to take advantage of this so-called leniency from the IRS.
Brian Compton, my associate and the President of Tax Resolution Services, was recently interviewed by Rob Lever from the international publicationÂ
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It’s official–UBS, the Swiss Banking Giant has reached a deal with the US Government and the Swiss Government to release around 4,450 names of American account holders suspected of tax evasion.
The US Government estimates there to be $18 billion hidden in these offshore accounts–giving the IRS plenty reason to scrutinize and audit both the innocent and guilty in the upcoming months.
If you have a UBS account and have not paid
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Hope everyone had a great weekend! CNBC.com reporter Mark Koba quoted me in a recent article about last week’s agreement by Swiss bank UBS to name US account holders. This is being seen as a watershed, leaving many wealthy Americans with foreign accounts scrambling to figure out what to do
Anyone who has not checked the Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) box on Schedule B of form
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As Swiss bank UBS and the Swiss government consider reneging on a deal to turn over 52,000 names of U.S. clients, Justice Department warns criminal prosecution may be next step
By Michael Rozbruch
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For those who follow tax compliance news, February was a big month.
That’s when the U.S. Department of Justice announced a deal with Swiss bank UBS.
The U.S. government agreed to waive criminal prosecution — federal prosecutors suspected the Swiss bank
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UBS and the U.S. and Swiss governments are nearing a settlement over the Swiss bank’s forced disclosure of 52,000 names of  U.S. clients suspected of tax evasion.
While the final form of agreement is not yet in place, there are many implications for U.S. taxpayers, including innocent offshore account holders who did not use their Swiss accounts to evade taxes. They may be heavily investigated, so it will be
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UBS has just struck a deal with the US Government to give up 52,000 names of Americans who have Swiss bank accounts. In the upcoming weeks, we can expect to see many guilty tax evaders being charged with heavy IRS penalties as well as innocent account holders who will need to defend themselves. (Read more about the latest UBS settlement.)
It is not uncommon for American businesspeople to hold foreign bank
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The Obama Administration has given the IRS more financial and human resources to restrict tax evasion for the next couple of years–making it more difficult for tax cheats to escape unscathed. In an effort to bridge the enormous tax gap (most of which can be attributed to underreported income–$285 billion), the U.S. Treasury is working with the IRS to accomplish a number of stricter regulatory goals that would result in
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Swiss banks are shutting the accounts of Americans as the Internal Revenue Service accelerates the hunt for tax dodgers. The country’s biggest banks, UBS AG and Credit Suisse Group AG, have told Americans to move their money into specially created units registered in the U.S., or lose their accounts. Smaller private banks such as Geneva-based Mirabaud & Cie. are closing all accounts held by U.S. taxpayers.
After the American government’s legal
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The IRS has announced a six-month Voluntary Disclosure program that offers lower penalties to those who come forward and pay taxes due on the secret holdings in offshore accounts. Until now, the IRS could impose penalties of at least 50% for all years in which an account wasn’t disclosed. In some cases, that could exceed the value of the offshore holdings.
The announcement comes amid a U.S. legal battle to
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The IRS announced new voluntary disclosure practices for offshore account holders. Voluntary disclosure can help taxpayers avoid prosecution for possible tax evasion and reduce taxes, penalties, and interest owed.  The IRS offers leniency for voluntary disclosure and Americans with IRS tax problems should take advantage of this policy to mitigate legal problems later.
While taxpayers can participate in the voluntary disclosure program before the IRS has initiated a civil or criminal
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President-elect Barack Obama called Timothy Geithner’s tax problems an “embarrassment,” but also referred to the situation as an “innocent mistake.” So don’t expect Geithner’s $34,000 tax bill to disqualify him from the new administration’s Treasury Secretary appointment.
According to reports, Geithner failed to pay self-employment taxes for money he earned from 2001 to 2004 while working for the International Monetary Fund.
News reports state that the amount that Geithner paid was $16,000
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