New (but much less “friendly”) Amnesty Offered for Foreign Bank Account Reporting and Disclosure by the IRS – IRS OVDP Amnesty Program Application:
Big Brother is watching in the case of Foreign Bank Account Reporting. This program gives people the chance to come into the IRS before the IRS finds them. In many cases, the IRS is getting help from the overseas banks themselves who engineered the offshore tax evasion practices in the first place!
Take overseas banks like UBS and HSBC, who also depend on their US-granted bank charters to do business here in the USA, and the IRS has the perfect recipe to motivate these foreign banks to cooperate with them in this effort to catch tax evaders or risk being shut down from operating in the USA. Add in the increased capabilities and sophistication that modern computerization allows, and the net needed to be cast by the IRS to catch tax evaders becomes even smaller.
Under the old and new programs, some taxpayers qualify for penalties as low as 5%. For the new program, that category includes inherited accounts that have not been actively managed. Unlike the 2009 program, the new one includes a category for people who never
had more than $75,000 in offshore accounts. They will be subject to a 12.5% penalty.
Taxpayers who participated in the 2009 program with accounts under that threshold can qualify for a reduced penalty.
Taxpayers who are already being audited cannot participate in the program. Those who have made “quiet disclosures” by amending previously filed tax returns may be able to apply for the program. People who waited out the 2009 initiative, they will not be rewarded for waiting” said IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman. Taxpayers are urged to disclose foreign accounts before new reporting requirements for overseas banks and changes to US tax treaties give the IRS more information for use in criminal cases.
Please contact our office for any assistance needed for the IRS Foreign Offshore Account Amnesty Program and preparing prior year amended tax returns in conjunction with participation in the IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program to apply for FBAR Non-Filing Amnesty & to report previously undeclared income on amended tax returns for prior years. Contact us by Phone (305) 672-4272 or e-mail us at DAVID@CPA-FL.COM
Should you have questions or need Business or Individual Tax Advice, our firm may be contacted at:
PHONE: (305) 672-4272 [4CPA]
E-MAIL: DAVID@CPA-FL.COM
WEBSITE: WWW.CPA-FL.COM
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @MiamiBeachCPA
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