Overseas Bank Account - Be Careful
Should you have an overseas bank account, and your objective was and is to hide money from the IRS than things have certainly changed for you especially if you have an account with UBS. Until recently, you could rely on foreign bank secrecy laws to protect you from disclosure. Now the federal government has successfully taken UBS which is the Union Bank of Switzerland to court in an effort to force the foreign bank to give up the names of American citizens maintaining overseas bank accounts, technically known as non-disclosed accounts to the American government.
The number of Americans maintaining overseas bank account(s) are in the tens of thousands. In a landmark negotiation UBS has agreed to give up the names of several hundred of these account holders who the bank believes are guilty of criminal behavior to the IRS. So if you are a holder of an overseas bank account here's your bet. We know the number of customers having such accounts are in the 50,000 range. If the bank is giving up 250 accounts to start with, is your name in that 250, or are you in the remaining 50,000? That's the bet.
The IRS has created a disclosure program that allows you to reveal your identity to the government until September 23rd. If you do voluntarily come forward, it seems unlikely that the government will pursue the matter criminally which means jail time. There will also be a certain amount of clemency given and certain fines will be avoided. If you wait until after the deadline, or if the government finds you first, we can promise you that you will face a nightmare scenario. The government does know how to make one's life miserable between liens, arrests, confiscations and a whole variety of practices thought up over the last 70 years.
Also keep in mind that these overseas bank accounts are opening up an entire can of worms for the taxpayer. The holding of an overseas account is not a violation of the law. It is the non-disclosure to the IRS that makes it a violation. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have overseas accounts and suffer no penalty whatsoever because they properly note on their tax forms the existence of such accounts and they pay taxes on whatever interest or income is generated by such accounts.
If you have a non-disclosed account than the government has to assume that you have ulterior motives for keeping such account. Perhaps the funds were obtained in an illegal manner to begin with. If the government finds out and comes after you, there will probably be a full investigation as to the reporting of your entire income stream.
Probably the best thing you can do right now is to consult with a very sophisticated CPA or tax lawyer. If you feel your case is very complex and there is a likelihood of criminal prosecution, you might consider consulting with a criminal tax attorney of which there are many to choose from. Let your legal representative act as the go-between when interacting with the government. Yes, it is costly but the alternative of interacting yourself is crazy.
The number of Americans maintaining overseas bank account(s) are in the tens of thousands. In a landmark negotiation UBS has agreed to give up the names of several hundred of these account holders who the bank believes are guilty of criminal behavior to the IRS. So if you are a holder of an overseas bank account here's your bet. We know the number of customers having such accounts are in the 50,000 range. If the bank is giving up 250 accounts to start with, is your name in that 250, or are you in the remaining 50,000? That's the bet.
The IRS has created a disclosure program that allows you to reveal your identity to the government until September 23rd. If you do voluntarily come forward, it seems unlikely that the government will pursue the matter criminally which means jail time. There will also be a certain amount of clemency given and certain fines will be avoided. If you wait until after the deadline, or if the government finds you first, we can promise you that you will face a nightmare scenario. The government does know how to make one's life miserable between liens, arrests, confiscations and a whole variety of practices thought up over the last 70 years.
Also keep in mind that these overseas bank accounts are opening up an entire can of worms for the taxpayer. The holding of an overseas account is not a violation of the law. It is the non-disclosure to the IRS that makes it a violation. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have overseas accounts and suffer no penalty whatsoever because they properly note on their tax forms the existence of such accounts and they pay taxes on whatever interest or income is generated by such accounts.
If you have a non-disclosed account than the government has to assume that you have ulterior motives for keeping such account. Perhaps the funds were obtained in an illegal manner to begin with. If the government finds out and comes after you, there will probably be a full investigation as to the reporting of your entire income stream.
Probably the best thing you can do right now is to consult with a very sophisticated CPA or tax lawyer. If you feel your case is very complex and there is a likelihood of criminal prosecution, you might consider consulting with a criminal tax attorney of which there are many to choose from. Let your legal representative act as the go-between when interacting with the government. Yes, it is costly but the alternative of interacting yourself is crazy.
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