U.S. seeks reports on Americans' foreign bank accounts

[flashl]

Source: IHT

In its hunt for wealthy Americans who have stashed money overseas to evade taxes, the U.S. government has turned to an obscure law enacted nearly four decades ago.

Under the law, originally aimed at rooting out laundering of drug money, citizens or residents of the United States must tell the Internal Revenue Service each year if they have any foreign bank or financial accounts holding a total of $10,000 or more. Income from the assets is taxed at ordinary rates of up 35 percent.

The law took effect in 1970, but many taxpayers have either ignored it or were not aware of it, and the Treasury Department has rarely enforced it. The IRS estimates that one million American taxpayers warrant disclosure, but that as few as one in four file the disclosures.

Now, as it intensifies its efforts to root out offshore tax evasion, the IRS is moving to enforce the law aggressively and to apply stiff new penalties to taxpayers who don't file the disclosures. "There is definitely a renewed emphasis on this," said Kevin Packman, a tax lawyer at Holland & Knight.

IHT

Read more: http://iht.com/articles/2008/05/15/business/15tax.php

[beachmom]

1. Well, Turbo Tax lets you know. Turbo Tax beats CPAs most of the time.

People have no excuse not to follow the law.

[BlueJazz]

2. This is a sore point with me. Two of my regular customers....

...who happen to be wealthy and are right-wing voters plus they love Bush and are always informing me how much they
"Love America" happen to have a lot of dough in offshore accounts. (Why they brag about it...I have no idea..I guess to impress me?)

Anyway..I'd love to tell them just once "Yea..if you loved America so much, you'd pay some fucking taxes on your money" :mad:

[iamahaingttta]

4. If YOU loved America so much...

...YOU would actually find the balls to say that to your customers.

[BlueJazz]

10. Sure...glad to....Can I sleep on your couch?

[Trailrider1951]

3. I suggest they start looking at

Dick Cheney's accounts. :evilgrin:

[LiberalFighter]

5. How will they discover those accounts?

[flashl]

8. Likely, by focusing on UBS

The focus could be harsh for some American clients of UBS, Switzerland's largest bank and the world's largest manager of private wealth. UBS is under investigation by the United States into whether it helped clients evade taxes, possibly by not reporting to the IRS interest and dividends earned by American clients.

Recent case:

Ex-Banker From UBS Is Indicted in Tax Case

Some of the secrets of Switzerland’s biggest bank were put on display on Tuesday as federal authorities indicted a former UBS banker on charges of helping a wealthy American real estate developer evade taxes.

The one-count conspiracy indictment, unsealed in federal court, accuses the former banker, Bradley Birkenfeld, of helping the developer evade taxes on $200 million held in bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The indictment also names as a co-conspirator Mario Staggl, an executive at a trust company in Liechtenstein, a major European tax haven.

[Elspeth]

6. Hey, maybe Fred Goldman can get his settlement from OJ now.

:evilgrin:

[Phred42]

7. This ought to tighten a few colons

:rofl:

[LynzM]

9. Wanna take bets....

On how many people suddenly open a few thousand accounts to hold 10k or less in each? Ugh.

We have an account abroad - we'll just have to make sure to keep less than that in there (hahahaha, I wish we had that much to save in there!)

[Art_from_Ark]

11. You've got to report all accounts

if the cumulative total for all of them together reaches $10,000 at any time during the year.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

12. good luck with that,

seeing as most tax havens have very strict laws explicitly tailored to thwarting this type of investigation, and with any presence of mind what-so-ever the guy with some dirty money in a foreign bank never touch the account themselves which is usually in the name of a hack accountant or lawyer and draw on the funds with a US dollar companion credit card issued by a foreign bank, the bill of which is paid with the foreign funds funds.

The only time anyone is caught for that is only after they are already being investigated for something else.