This is an update to a post we did earlier in the week on the trial of former Swiss banker whom U.S. authorities had charged with criminal conspiracy for allegedly helping Americans evade taxes on undisclosed foreign accounts. As we noted in our November 3 post, Raoul Weil, a former […]
Author: Lawrence Brown
The Internal Revenue Service has made changes in order to help with the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, by removing a potential tax angle that might discourage some workers from giving under workplace leave-donation programs. According to the tax code, employees are often able to arrange for their employers to […]
A little under a year ago there were more than 100 Swiss banks clawing their way into the U.S. Justice Department’s no prosecution agreement. The deadline to sign up was New Years’ Day 2014. Banks who were able to meet the deadline were guaranteed no conviction or closure, no disgrace, […]
The former head of UBS AG (UBSN)’s global wealth-management business, Raoul Weil, referred to accounts hidden by U.S. clients from the Internal Revenue Service as “toxic waste,” at his tax-conspiracy trial. Martin Liechti, a former UBS banker cooperating with prosecutors, told federal jurors in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that Weil became […]
While Pfizer Inc.’s CEO acknowledged Tuesday that the U.S. Treasury Department’s recent crackdown on inversions has diminished the deal’s appeal, the drug maker has yet to rule out an acquisition that would lower its tax bill. New York-based Pfizer explored deals with AstraZeneca PLC and Actavis PLC this year that […]
In the first part of this post, we began discussing the issue of the confidentiality of sensitive and personal information submitted by taxpayers to the IRS. We noted that a report recently issued by a key government watchdog agency found serious concerns with the performance of the IRS in safeguarding […]
Fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana are breathing sighs of relief after being cleared by Italy’s highest court of tax evasion charges Friday, bringing an end to one of the country’s highest profile tax cases in recent years. The designers have been in a constant battle since June 2013 […]
The Internal Revenue Service is expecting a plethora of complications with the coming tax-filing season, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said in an interview with the nonprofit publisher Tax Analysts that was published this week. Mr. Koskinen suggests, “The difference this year compared to the past is we are having to […]
Switzerland, a country long known for its bank secrecy laws, is attempting to fight that reputation by playing a leading role in the effort to return stolen state assets. Valentin Zellweger, a legal adviser at the Swiss foreign ministry, said the country has been working on returning stolen assets for […]
To be sure, the IRS has various sticks at its disposal to deploy to enforce tax compliance. These tools do not only include tax audits; in more severe cases, the threat of criminal prosecution is also present. Overall, however, the IRS is able to bring in much of the nation’s […]