IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program –
We Competently Represent Clients Seeking to Disclose
Building upon its March 2009 program, there are indications that the IRS will offer another offshore voluntary disclosure program (“VDP”). Before the March 2009 program ended in October of 2009, the IRS reports approximately 15,000 individuals made voluntary disclosures of their offshore accounts.
Since that time, another approximately 3,000 individuals have made voluntary disclosures of their undisclosed offshore accounts. The IRS is considering the extension of the original program to these latter people because they came forward to the IRS before the IRS became aware of them. You may qualify for this same benefit if you do not hesitate for long.
Regardless of the offshore account program—for which you may or may not qualify—the time honored principle in IRS tax law administration is that a person who voluntarily discloses previously undeclared tax liabilities will receive better law enforcement treatment than a person who is discovered by the IRS to have underpaid taxes.
In this offshore account context, the IRS has undertaken an aggressive enforcement campaign to find and prosecute taxpayers with unreported offshore accounts.
In addition to UBS, we have recently seen HSBC, Credit Suisse, Bank Leumi and Deutsche Bank being asked to disclose the names of U.S. citizens or non-citizen residents of the U.S with offshore bank and investment accounts maintained at these institutions. This is an international effort that the IRS says will reach to Asia and the Middle East.
If you are properly reporting, you have nothing to be concerned about and do not need Lindabury’s expert assistance. But if you are not, the legal counsel of our experienced team can help you. Please call us at (908) 233-6800.
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