It seems that U.S. lawmakers are likely to give the IRS increasing support in its recent assault on offshore accounts.
More than 7,500 U.S. taxpayers have voluntarily disclosed secret offshore accounts to the Internal Revenue Service in connection with a recent amnesty program. The program did not provide any forgiveness for tax evasion. It simply provided possible leniency with respect to penalties for those who voluntarily came forward and disclosed secret offshore accounts. IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman says that the IRS will be scouring the 7,500 disclosures to identify financial institutions, advisors and others who helped taxpayers avoid obligations.
According to an article by Ryan J. Dommoyer of Bloomberg News (published in The Cleveland Plain Dealer), U.S. lawmakers have praised the recent developments and are calling for stronger laws to help the IRS. Senator Carl Levin heads the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. That Committee has held hearings on how UBS solicited Americans to put assets in Swiss banks. Senator Levin has stated that he will keep pushing legislation to give the IRS more tools to fight tax evasion through offshore accounts.
As I have repeatedly stated in posts on this blog, there is nothing inherently wrong with offshore accounts. When such accounts are maintained in a proper and lawful manner, account holders should have no significant concerns about increased IRS scrutiny.
