On January 15, 2020 we posted 151 Offshore Banks & Now Financial Advisors Are Turning Over Your Names To The IRS - What Are You Waiting For? and since then the Government has add Strachans (effective 10/6/2020) to this list bringing the number to 152 Offshore Banks and Foreign Financial Advisors.
The IRS keeps updating its list of foreign banks which are turning over the names of their US Account Holders. Under the terms of their agreement with the IRS & Treasury, banks are required to:
- Make a complete disclosure of their cross-border activities;
- Provide detailed information on an account-by-account basis for accounts in which U.S. taxpayers have a direct or indirect interest;
- Cooperate in treaty requests for account information;
- Provide detailed information as to other banks that transferred funds into secret accounts or that accepted funds when secret accounts were closed;
- Agree to close accounts of account holders who fail to come into compliance with U.S. reporting obligations; and
- Pay appropriate penalties.
These Banks, Financial Instructions and Foreign Financial Advisors have made substantial efforts to cooperate with the IRS investigation, including by:
- facilitating interviews that their Office with employees, including top level executives;
- voluntarily producing documents in response to the Office’s requests;
- providing, in response to a treaty request, unredacted client files for the U.S. taxpayer-clients who maintained accounts at their Banks or Financial Instruction; and
- committing to assist in responding to a treaty request that is expected to result in the production of un-redacted client files for U.S. taxpayer-clients who maintained accounts at these Banks and Financial Instructions and with these Foreign Financial Advisors.
This list does not impact the Streamlined programs because you must be non-willful to qualify. All of this is part of the June 2014 improvements to the OVDP, which sparked new interest in cleaning up offshore accounts.
- With roughly 151 Foreign Banks and Financial Advisors cooperating with the DOJ & IRS and
- FATCA requiring the entire world to report to the IRS
it is INEVITABLE that this increased disclosure, will result in EVERY AMERICAN eventually being discovered. Banks worldwide want to know if there US clients are compliant with the IRS.
As additional banks are added to the list, American taxpayers will continue to be subject to the 50% intentional failure to file penalty, which now applies to all taxpayers with foreign accounts who make a voluntary disclosure after September 28 2018.
Although the 50% penalty is high, willful civil violations can result in tax, penalties and interest totaling 325% of the highest balance in the account for the most recent six years period. Recent guidance suggests that the IRS could be more lenient in the future, but the IRS’s definition of leniency can still make the OVDP a very good deal that provides certainty.
Do You Have Undeclared Income from one of
these Offshore Banks or
Financial Advisors?
Is Your Name Being Handed Over to the IRS?
Want to Know if the OVDP Program is Right for You?
Contact the Tax Lawyers at
Marini & Associates, P.A.
for a FREE Tax Consultation contact us at:
Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888) 882-9243
Read more at: Tax Times blog
