U.S. Internal Revenue Service Revives Offshore Tax Dodger Forgiveness Program

Jan 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Monday said it was reopening an offshore voluntary disclosure program for U.S. taxpayers who have evaded taxes by hiding money in secret bank accounts.

Two previous IRS programs, which ran in 2009 and 2011, brought in more than $4.4 billion in taxes from tens of thousands of tax evaders, said the tax collection agency.

"This new program makes good sense for taxpayers still hiding assets overseas and for the nation's tax system," said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman in a statement. (Reporting By Lynnley Browning. Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Steve Orlofsky)

Comments

[calgary411]

07:02 PM on 01/10/2012

Part 5 of 5

(5) If you are a United States citizen or Green Card holder and are or were unaware of your filing requirements, we urge you to get sound information regarding your rights and responsibilities from reliable sources. If you are living in Canada and abiding by Canadian tax laws, you are not a criminal nor should you permit the government in Washington D. C. to treat you as one. Know also that “cross border” accountants and lawyers do not have equal standards of competency or morality. Buyer beware!

Peter W. Dunn has written this press release on behalf of the Isaac Brock Society, which is an informal group of individuals who are concerned about the treatment by the United States government of US persons who live in Canada and abroad. We have come together to fight the overreach of the IRS and to provide one another with accurate information, peer-to-peer advice and comfort. Our website is http://isaacbrocksociety.wordpress.com.

[calgary411]

07:01 PM on 01/10/2012

and the two more parts Part 4 of 5

(3) The IRS cannot be trusted. The Tax Advocate Service, the ombudsman service within the IRS, issued a rare Tax Advocate Directive rebuking the IRS and ordering them to respect the terms of the program and be more lenient, returning to the policy of the FAQ 35 which said that those who enter the program would not be fined more than they would have under existing statutes. To date the IRS has ignored the Taxpayer Advocate Directive. This suggests that the IRS has decided that Offshore Voluntary Disclosure should be a revenue generating instrument and apply the fines of 20% and 25% without regard to the innocence of the people that entered into the program. The IRS presumes that everyone who enters these programs is a tax cheat.

(4) We must stress that the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure program, which the IRS has announced, is not a mandatory law but a voluntary program. Therefore, enter it only if you wish to relinquish voluntarily 27.5% of your hard earned savings and other assets to the IRS.

[calgary411]

07:00 PM on 01/10/2012

Part 3 of 3
As a result of Flaherty’s efforts, United States Ambassador to Canada, David Jacobson tried to assure Canadians that the IRS was not out to get grandma’s bank accounts. He said, “My message on this is to sit tight. We are not unreasonable. We are not unsympathetic. We are not irresponsible.” Law abiding residents of Canada, please do “sit tight”. Do not enter this program out of fear, and do not allow a lawyer to enter you into this program without clearly explaining why you should. If you enter the program, the IRS will surely fine you up to 27.5% of all of your monetary and non-monetary financial assets.
(1) The Canadian government has said it will not enforce the collection of FBAR fines. Thus the IRS has no means to collect fines from any accounts in Canada.

(2) The Canadian government has said it will not collect taxes for the IRS from Canadian citizens, provided that the person incurred the tax liability while a Canadian citizen.

[calgary411]

06:58 PM on 01/10/2012

Part 2 of 3
The United States has dusted off a long neglected, possibly unconstitutional law which requires all United States persons to file a yearly disclosure of foreign financial accounts (FBAR). There is widespread ignorance of FBAR, and up until recently, very limited compliance. A significant number of Canadians learned about the 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure program from the Canadian media and entered it in fear, not realizing that the IRS had every intention of levying fines of 25% of their net worth (or in some cases 5% for those who were unaware that they were United States citizens), even though in most cases they owed no taxes to the United States, had no knowledge of the FBAR reporting requirement, and had innocent and necessary bank accounts in accordance with the laws of Canada. As a result of this crackdown by the IRS, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty went to bat for Canadian residents, insisting that the IRS get off the backs of hard working Canadian residents who had done no wrong and who were abiding by the tax and banking laws of Canada. “Canada is not a tax haven”, he insisted.

[calgary411]

06:56 PM on 01/10/2012

Caution to U.S. Citizens and U.S./Canada dual citizens who are residents of Canada about the IRS announcement (IR-2012-5) January 9, 2012, regarding Offshore Voluntary Disclosure

Part 1 of 3
On January 9, 2012, the IRS announced a renewed Offshore Voluntary Disclosure program. This is an IRS program designed to bring tax cheats into compliance. During the last two disclosure programs in 2009 and 2011, a significant number of unsuspecting Canadian residents entered these programs to “make it right” with IRS. We strongly warn law-abiding Canadian residents of the dangers of entering this program which is intended to attract tax cheats who live in the United States but have undisclosed offshore accounts.

[Charles Queen]

06:01 PM on 01/10/2012

If you have money in an overseas bank and you do not use any of it or take any out and use it except for if you'r overseas in the country where you have it at then they cannot tax you,plin and simople.Only if you take it out and bring it back here or deposit any of it in an American bank then they can get ya.I'd like to see them do a real ful blown audit of everyone in washington myelf.All senators congress peoples,all reps etc.I'd love to see that happen

[Sarah Albers]

12:43 PM on 01/10/2012

I want them to forgive all the domestic tax evaders too. Seems fair, since those are probably the people who kept jobs in the country. I know...oversimplification, but that's how I feel.

[Nobody78]

11:21 AM on 01/10/2012

Is there a Forgiveness Program for all other crimes? or just for crimes the Weathy commit? I would love for my parking tickets to be forgiven.

[nypapajoe]

09:25 AM on 01/10/2012

In reading some if the responses it clearly demonstrate these individuals are blinded by their Bagger convictions and not understanding what a democracy is all about and how it's financed! These past 30 years of Theiving Reganamics has produced some of the most wealthiest people in the history of this nation but what is most disturbing is that this has been done on the back of those in the middle class, who have been paying the bills of this nation to date, while the wealthy elite has managed to scam them selfs out of paying a dime while staching their Billions in foreign banks! To pull of this organized crime of grand Theft they have created these tea Baggers to confuse the issues in order for these 1% to perpetrate their corruption and greed! The republican Baggers in office are their employees and lobbyist! We have no body in congress!

[ocgame9]

12:26 AM on 01/10/2012

NO TAXES BESIDE SALES TAX

[Captain Hindsight]

08:28 AM on 01/10/2012

That places all of the burden on the working poor and middle class who spend nearly all of their earnings. The rich don't spend too much of the money they get from trust funds and investments.

[ocgame9]

08:46 AM on 01/10/2012

Don't business all over america spent all there earning within the year expanding and buying assets. The rich don't pay taxes with the current tax plan now but they will if only a sales tax was enforced. The poor and middle class will have more money available without property tax, income tax, ss, medicare, and fed tax.

[ocgame9]

01:05 PM on 01/10/2012

They will be no deduction because its a sales tax. What will they deduct it from their money is not being taxed so there stuck with no deduction and having to pay the sales tax.

It comes down to the politicians being evil and hating capitalism. They create unfair advantages which causes inequity.

Companies are not hoarding money because they what to they don't have a choice. The world is going to see another great depression soon and these companies are anticipation it. There are storing and getting ready for the big storm to come as you should to.

[Nobody78]

11:22 AM on 01/10/2012

Then who would pay for our military?

[ocgame9]

11:41 AM on 01/10/2012

Each state would share that responsibility with the revenue they received.

[ocgame9]

11:52 PM on 01/09/2012

No one has a problem paying taxes. The problem is when you give money to a crack addict(Government) to buy groceries they always comes back empty handed. No one whats to support a crack addict(government) right. When will the government do what they are told to do?

[Nobody78]

11:26 AM on 01/10/2012

Maybe you forgot to read the story, these people didn't pay the government, so they really don't have the same right as the rest of us to complain about. When they pay, they can complain.

[ocgame9]

11:47 AM on 01/10/2012

The point is tax laws are not fair. They wont have a problem paying once fairness increases. Now if you think they should pay 60% of their income to the government then your crazy. No one will and no one has in till this day.

[ocgame9]

03:03 PM on 01/10/2012

Its still in the high 45%. Your a millionaire I forgot you should know. Ohh but Peter Schiff is a millionaire and he claims he does pay close to 50% in taxes. Major Fail For YOU

[worker beenumbed]

09:18 PM on 01/09/2012

This collection probably will not happen if Romney wins

[nnanciejean]

07:08 AM on 01/10/2012

This is peanuts compared to all of our money that was given to obamas buds.

[Nobody78]

11:27 AM on 01/10/2012

What?

[rchwel]

09:14 PM on 01/09/2012

Ok now lets force the courts to allow a blue collar bank robber to pay back the money he stole with no interest and no jail time, sounds fair to me.

[Tenley]

09:02 PM on 01/09/2012

An Occupy Wall Street coalition has some major corporate tax proposals in New York today, including: tax nonresident hedge fund management fees, eliminate the carried interest exemption under NYC's unincorporated business tax, return the corporate AMT to the level it was a decade ago, add a throwback or throwout rule to the apportionment formula, conduct an intensive exam of the returns of investors in real estate partnerships, and mandate the public disclosure of the corporate tax payments of publicly traded companies.

[bluefalcon06]

08:50 PM on 01/09/2012

Lower taxes for everybody and bring back collecting more money from lottery tickets.