Tax Lawyer's Blog

TaxNews.com reports that,  

The US government’s new ‘amnesty’ on undisclosed offshore bank accounts is yielding promising results for the Internal Revenue Service, according to the agency’s chief, Doug Shulman.

Shulman announced to reporters on March 26 that a partial amnesty program being launched by the agency will see account holders avoid heavy penalties and possible criminal prosecution.

Under the new scheme, the IRS will impose a penalty of 20% on the highest single account balance held over the past six years, and will agree not to initiate criminal proceedings against taxpayers if they volunteer information on their offshore accounts and earnings before they are audited.

The program will run for the next six months, and will also help the IRS to develop useful ‘intelligence’ not only on taxpayers with offshore accounts and other assets, but also on the banks and institutions that help manage their offshore financial affairs.

But, as we have pointed out before, woe to those who fail to take advantage of the voluntary compliance, amnesty program:

Shulman told the Press Club audience that the IRS will step up criminal proceedings against those who refuse to come clean about their financial affairs with the government.

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