Take Advantage of The Amnesty Period for Quiet Disclosures as U.S. and Swiss Governments Accelerate Hunt for Tax Evaders
In an effort to more aggressively pursue tax evaders who hide assets in overseas accounts, the US Department of Justice, UBS AG (Swiss Bank), and the Swiss government are working together to reveal the identities of US depositors who use secret offshore accounts.
In order to aid Obama’s latest efforts to bring out tax cheats who take advantage of offshore tax havens, the government of Switzerland filed a brief in the case asserting that it may confiscate from UBS any information identifying U.S. taxpayers hiding assets from the IRS in secret Swiss accounts.
CCH (http://tax.cchgroup.com) reports:
District Court Stays IRS Summons Enforcement Against Swiss Bank as Potential Settlement Looms
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), UBS AG and the government of Switzerland, on July 12, filed a joint motion to stay proceedings concerning the identity of U.S. depositors that may be hiding assets offshore in secret accounts. Although no ruling was on the docket at press time, the DOJ announced through a subsequent July 13 media press release that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida granted the motion, allowing the parties until August 3 to work on a settlement. This announcement comes after the government of Switzerland filed an amicus brief in the case asserting that it may confiscate from UBS any information identifying U.S. taxpayers hiding assets from the IRS in secret Swiss accounts.
In the July 12 press release that coincided with the July 12 motion to stay, the DOJ stated that all filing parties agreed to require UBS to disclose the identities of a significant number of allegedly liable U.S. taxpayers if a resolution for the case could be reached out of court. Otherwise, with no alternative resolution, the DOJ said it will “continue to vigorously pursue enforcement of the summons through the court.”
DOJ Prosecution Continues
Despite this chance for settlement, the DOJ also filed a response on July 12 in opposition to the Swiss government’s threats to transfer the disputed information from UBS’s legal control. It argued that an act of state by the government of Switzerland would not interfere with the court’s enforcement of the summons. The DOJ also asserted that, should the court order UBS to comply with the summons and if UBS refuses to do so, it would ask the court to hold UBS in contempt and impose monetary sanctions. However, it emphasized that consideration of any punishment of UBS, as well as the Swiss government for its role in the dispute, before ruling on enforcement of the summons is premature.
“To the best of our knowledge the Swiss government has not yet taken such action, nor has it made clear what it means when it suggests that it will issue an order “taking effective control” of the UBS records,” the DOJ observed.
By Torie Cole, CCH News Staff
The IRS tax penalties for tax evaders are extremely severe. Improve your chances of penalty abatement by filing for quiet disclosure before the Amnesty Period deadline (September 22, 2009).
You may get help from our specialized staff of tax attorneys, CPAs, EAs and tax professionals at TRS. Visit Tax Resolution Services for a free income tax relief consultation or call us at 866-IRS-PROBLEMS (1-866-477-7762).
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July 20th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
what is the reason for not telling the whole story??
The US should keep our nose out of other countries business. We should not bully the Swiss. Obama said “we will have a new public image with foreign countries. “We will listen and learn and not dictate our policies to other countries” (paraphrasing) A typical politicians lies. I am sure he meant that statement with countries who might slap us back, like North Korea,etc.
If the Swiss had the “bomb” the US would not be demanding anything from them. But as the Swiss cannot fight back, we will roll them over with our power.
If the Swiss demanded we turn over the names of Swiss citizens to their country that have accounts in our banks, we would laugh at them. It would be against out “privacy laws”. We must be careful of this witch hunt. The EU countries would love to get their hands on the names of their citizens that have accounts in our banks so they could tax them in their home country(50-70% tax)The USA is a big tax haven for the EU people. Non resident aliens pay no tax on interest earned in our banks. The EU could use this as precedent to get the names. Their citizens would take their money out of our banks, our banks and economy would COLLAPSE!
We need the low tax countries to keep tax competition alive, Without tax competition, governments all over the world, including the US can raise taxes with no recourse.
August 24th, 2009 at 9:23 am
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