The Wall Street Journal reports that,
The U.S. could within months begin criminally prosecuting hundreds of wealthy Americans — from the obscure to the “rich and famous” — for using foreign bank accounts to evade income taxes.
In a settlement with the Swiss government detailed Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service said Swiss bank UBS AG will ultimately turn over the identities behind 4,450 secret accounts.
At least $10 billion had been stashed to avoid payment of U.S. taxes or the disclosure of foreign accounts, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The U.S. government investigation and settlement ultimately could produce some 10,000 account identities.
In a blog post titled IRS Plays Chicken with Taxpayers, Tax Girl Kelly Phillips-Erb advances the theory that the IRS is stringing out the disclosure of the names in order to frighten the other 48,000 American investors into coming forward voluntarily.
The last day to come foward under the voluntary disclosure program is September 23, 2009.
Related Posts:
- IRS Urges Foreign Bank Account Holders to Come Forward Voluntarily
- Will IRS Voluntary Disclosure Practice Help UBS Clients?
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1 U.S. Senators: UBS Just the Beginning // Aug 27, 2009 at 12:12 am
[...] UBS Taxpayer Disclosure Update [...]
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