With the recent global crackdown on tax evasion in full swing, Standard Chartered PLC is seeking a buyer for its Swiss private bank put on the block by Italian insurance giant Assicrazioni Generali SpA. While Standard Chartered still has plans to grow its private banking in other financial hubs including […]
A federal judge ruled today that Texas’s ban on same-sex marriage violates the U.S. Constitution. Federal judges in three other states have issued similar rulings in the last three months. In that sense, today’s ruling in Texas could constitute a contribution to a cultural tipping point. For our purposes of […]
The multi-front effort by U.S. authorities to enforce reporting requirements for offshore accounts is taking place on a complicated international stage. As we discussed in our September 6 post last year, there has been considerable pushback by U.S. taxpayers against the stepped-up enforcement. Surprisingly large numbers of those taxpayers have […]
Swiss banks seeking non-prosecution agreements ran out of time to apply for the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) amnesty program on December 31, 2013. Before the amnesty program closed, the DOJ announced that 106 banks sent letters of intent to participate. Banks that made it into the program will be […]
Tax evasion charges can be of many different types. Sometimes, tax evasion is charged on its own, apart from any other offenses. We discussed such a case in our December 2 post last year, concerning a former football player with ties to Texas who bought into a bogus anti-tax argument […]
More than 100 Swiss banks and other financial institutions are expected to seek non-prosecution agreements and provide U.S. authorities with information regarding clients suspected of offshore tax evasion. The announcement, given by Assistant Attorney General Kathryn Keneally, gave insight as to exactly how many Swiss banks are expected reveal how […]
Michael Hoffman, a jeweler in Grand Rapids, MI, is hoping that the court will grant him mercy when he is sentenced on Thursday for filing false corporate and personal income tax returns. The 59-year-old has asked for home confinement and probation, so that his business might survive. “Mr. Hoffman acknowledges […]
Part of mature thinking is being able to weigh the odds. This doesn’t mean gambling. It means knowing the likelihood that something will happen and tailoring actions accordingly to attain specific goals. In this post, we will consider tax audits as an example of this. It makes sense for a […]
McDonald’s came under fire on Tuesday after allegations from the French magazine L’Express claimed the food chain was under investigation by tax authorities for failing to pay taxes on 2.2 billion euros ($3 billion) of income from its 314 French locations. The restaurant denied the allegations found in the magazine’s […]
The identity of one healthcare entity that filed a class action lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service in March over allegedly seizing private records of 10 million Americans has been revealed. The lawsuit came after an extensive investigation into the company’s owner, who was indicted last summer on 13 counts […]