nuclearfm
10-15-2009, 01:00 AM
The Internal Revenue Service said more than 7,500 U.S. taxpayers with undeclared offshore accounts had stepped forward under its limited amnesty program, and the agency announced a new push to stop tax evaders from moving funds between foreign countries.
The accounts ranged in size from just above $10,000 to more than $100 million and were in several hundred banks in 70 countries, IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said. Several years ago, only 1,300 taxpayers stepped forward under a similar program.
[Doug Shulman]
Doug Shulman
The special Voluntary Disclosure program, which ends 5 p.m. Thursday, was extended from a Sept. 23 deadline after tax practitioners asked for an extension. There will be no further extension.
Mr. Shulman said the agency is "moving aggressively" to identify funds moving out of European banks and into ones in Asia and the Caribbean. It will open new offices in Beijing, Sydney, and Panama City and add staff in eight other international offices, including Barbados and Hong Kong. The Obama budget also calls for funding for an additional 800 IRS agents.
Mr. Shulman declined to estimate either how much revenue the current Voluntary Disclosure program would raise or how long it will take cases to be resolved. Under its terms, no one who steps forward and is admitted into the program is likely to be prosecuted criminally.
But almost all will have to pay a penalty of 20% of the highest value of the account since 2003, plus back taxes and interest. Attorneys say that in practice this often comes to nearly half the current value of the account.
While commending the IRS's "efforts," Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich), who is chairman of a Senate panel that has revealed many offshore secrets, said: "The IRS revealed today that one person alone disclosed foreign accounts with more than $100 million in assets, but didn't say whether that individual acted after being informed by their bank that their name was being given to the United States. If that is what happened, it doesn't count as a voluntary disclosure in my book."
Write to Laura Saunders at [email protected]
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125557090717486531.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStor ies
The accounts ranged in size from just above $10,000 to more than $100 million and were in several hundred banks in 70 countries, IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said. Several years ago, only 1,300 taxpayers stepped forward under a similar program.
[Doug Shulman]
Doug Shulman
The special Voluntary Disclosure program, which ends 5 p.m. Thursday, was extended from a Sept. 23 deadline after tax practitioners asked for an extension. There will be no further extension.
Mr. Shulman said the agency is "moving aggressively" to identify funds moving out of European banks and into ones in Asia and the Caribbean. It will open new offices in Beijing, Sydney, and Panama City and add staff in eight other international offices, including Barbados and Hong Kong. The Obama budget also calls for funding for an additional 800 IRS agents.
Mr. Shulman declined to estimate either how much revenue the current Voluntary Disclosure program would raise or how long it will take cases to be resolved. Under its terms, no one who steps forward and is admitted into the program is likely to be prosecuted criminally.
But almost all will have to pay a penalty of 20% of the highest value of the account since 2003, plus back taxes and interest. Attorneys say that in practice this often comes to nearly half the current value of the account.
While commending the IRS's "efforts," Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich), who is chairman of a Senate panel that has revealed many offshore secrets, said: "The IRS revealed today that one person alone disclosed foreign accounts with more than $100 million in assets, but didn't say whether that individual acted after being informed by their bank that their name was being given to the United States. If that is what happened, it doesn't count as a voluntary disclosure in my book."
Write to Laura Saunders at [email protected]
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125557090717486531.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStor ies