Sometimes a change makes so much sense that you wonder why it didn’t happen earlier. Many taxpayers with offshore accounts would agree this is the case with the recent adjustment of the filing date for the FBAR form. In this post, we will inform you about the change, under which […]
Category: Tax Evasion
One of the threads we are following in this blog is the IRS whistleblower program. Whistleblowers are people who alert the IRS to non-compliant taxpayers. Typically, in a whistleblower scenario, this taxpayer will be the whistleblower’s employer. The law allows for financial awards for whistleblowers who meet certain criteria. But […]
In the first part of this post, we began discussing how federal regulators use non-prosecution agreements (NPAs) and deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) to resolve various legal compliance concerns. In the tax community, this has particularly been the case with offshore accounts. Indeed, for nearly two years, the Tax Division of […]
In recent years, increased U.S. enforcement of offshore account reporting requirements has not only affected individual taxpayers. Foreign financial institutions have also been deeply affected. Swiss banks, historically a haven for undisclosed accounts, have come under particular scrutiny. And so it was no surprise that Forbes reported this week on […]
Due to budget cuts in recent years, the IRS has downsized its employee headcount significantly. But the agency’s pursuit of criminal investigations has been going up, not down. This is a story we’ve been following for some time. We discussed it at length a couple of years ago in an […]
Swiss bank BSI SA has admitted to helping U.S. clients evade taxes and entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, in a deal that requires the bank to pay a $211 million penalty and turn over the names of 3,000 American account holders. They are the […]
If federal authorities accuse you of tax fraud, the steps you and your attorney take in response are crucial. Given the complexity of the tax code, it is important to get counsel from an experienced tax attorney who knows how to defend and resolve criminal tax charges. In this post, […]
Tax-filing season for this year still has a couple of months ago. But what if you still have not filed taxes for previous years? In this post, we will explain how important it is to put a plan in place to address past-due federal taxes. One possible consequence of not […]
In part one of this post, we discussed the important distinction between tax avoidance and tax evasion. Tax avoidance, we explained, involves using legal means to get around or minimize tax liability. Tax evasion, by contrast, involves actions such as not reporting income that, when done willfully, can lead to […]
Sometimes two words seem to have similar meanings, but actually stand for very different things. Consider, for example, the words “avoidance” and “evasion.” Both of these words generally refer to getting around or keeping away from something. In the context of tax compliance, however, tax avoidance and tax evasion have […]