Last month, HSBC Holdings agreed to pay $1.92 billion in fines to U.S. authorities, which is the largest collective settlement in the Treasury Department’s history. The penalty assessment was based upon HSBC’s conduct in violation
I just returned from the American Bar Association Section of Taxation’s annual National Institute on Criminal Tax Fraud in Las Vegas. A topic of discussion was the relatively new New Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures for
The Department of Justice continues to prosecute cases involving United States taxpayers who have failed to report their interests in offshore accounts. Most of the cases are for large offshore accounts, but they provide good guidance
When the IRS receives payment with amended tax returns for taxes, interest and penalties, the IRS may misapply the payment. This results in IRS notices. Reminiscent of the mistakes of the 2009 OVDP, the IRS
FATCA was enacted in 2010 by Congress to target non-compliance by U.S. taxpayers using foreign accounts. FATCA requires foreign financial institutions (FFIs) to report to the IRS information about financial accounts held by U.S. taxpayers,
The IRS has announced its new New Filing Compliance Procedures for Non-Resident U.S. Taxpayers that taxpayers presenting “low compliance risk” should file delinquent tax returns, including delinquent information returns, for the past three years; and delinquent FBARs
Our office consults with many clients in determining whether they need to enter into the 2012 IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program. Because of the high 27.5% penalty in the 2012 OVDP program, many of our
The IRS has recently published a useful chart outlining options available to help US taxpayers with offshore interests. The new IRS chart correctly states that it “recognizes that its focus on offshore enforcement efforts and
When is it appropriate to make a quiet disclosure vs. making a disclosure through the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program? This question is not necessarily easy to answer. IRS agents handling OVDI/OVDP cases do not have
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced that its offshore voluntary disclosure programs (OVDPs) have collected more than $5 billion, and that it has tightened the eligibility requirements of the third program it opened in
The Internal Revenue Service announced on June 26, 2012 (IR-2012-64) that it is tightening eligibility requirements for the open-ended offshore voluntary disclosure program (2012 OVDP) that it announced in January 2012 for taxpayers with unreported
Yesterday the IRS stated that taxpayers’ eligibility to participate in the OVDP could be terminated if the foreign institution where you have your account faces IRS action. Once the U.S. government has taken action against
