Liechtenstein Allure to Wealthy Will Dim After Signing of U.S. Tax Accord

[Purveyor]

By Ryan J. Donmoyer and David Voreacos

Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The United States and Liechtenstein plan to sign an agreement to share information on banking clients that will erode the principality’s allure to rich Americans trying to hide assets behind impenetrable bank-secrecy laws.

The accord culminates two years of negotiations, and follows a U.S. Senate committee probe this year of tax avoidance by clients of Swiss and Liechtenstein banks, including LGT Group, which is controlled by the principality’s ruling family.

The agreement will be signed Dec. 8 in Liechtenstein’s capital of Vaduz, Matthew Keller, an official at the principality’s Washington embassy, said in an interview. That will leave only Monaco and Andorra as havens without formal procedures for exchanging information with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, according to the Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.

“People who’d hide assets or income from the IRS are running out of places to move it to,” said Pamela Olson, a former Treasury Department tax official who is now a lawyer at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Washington.

The Liechtenstein accord takes effect in 2010, according to a statement from the principality’s embassy in Washington. It covers financial information for 2009 and later tax years. Americans are required to disclose most offshore assets to the IRS, although some take advantage of bank-secrecy standards in places such as Liechtenstein and Switzerland to hide money from tax collectors.

MORE...

BLOOMBERG: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aewltPzw8E7Q&refer=exclusive

[yy4me]

1. Those poor victims, where ever will they hide the zillions

of dollars they now have to disclose. I bet some of these poor people are now hunting for other willing countries to offer them secrecy. I think this must be a financial disaster for these unknowns.
Can't help laughing over this.