Tax cheats disclose data to IRS
More than 7,500 US taxpayers voluntarily disclosed secret offshore accounts to the Internal Revenue Service as the agency expands its crackdown on overseas tax evasion, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said.
People who have come forward have provided information about accounts holding from $10,000 to $100 million since the IRS extended a Sept. 23 deadline for participating in the voluntary-disclosure program, Shulman said. The partial amnesty ends today and won’t be extended a second time, he said.
Americans with undeclared offshore accounts have been under growing pressure since Switzerland agreed Aug. 19 to hand over data to the US on as many as 4,450 UBS AG accounts to settle a lawsuit in which the US had sought as many as 52,000 accounts.
“We’re going to be scouring the 7,500 disclosures to identify financial institutions, advisers and others” who helped taxpayers skirt their obligations, Shulman said on a conference call. “This entire effort is not just about UBS and a single country.”