Amnesty nets IRS thousands of names
US taxpayers come clean
November 19, 2009
By Ryan Donmoyer and David Voreacos New York and Zurich
More than 14 700 Americans disclosed secret offshore bank accounts to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), ensuring billions of dollars in new tax collections and data for a crackdown on evaders, commissioner Doug Shulman said on Tuesday.
Shulman reported the voluntary disclosures under a leniency programme as the US and Swiss governments announced the criteria used in an agreement for UBS to hand over data on 4 450 accounts. The IRS and US prosecutors were scouring the new data to help pursue banks and advisers that fostered tax evasion, he said.
"We have now gained access to thousands of taxpayers and bank accounts that we have never had before," he added.
"It has sent a shock wave around the world. It has shown (that) we are serious about piercing the veil of bank secrecy."
Americans with undeclared offshore accounts have been under growing pressure since Switzerland agreed in August to hand over data to the US on as many as 4 450 UBS accounts to settle a lawsuit in which the US had sought details on as many as 52 000 accounts.
The partial amnesty programme, announced in March, let taxpayers repatriate offshore assets and avoid jail by paying back taxes, interest and reduced penalties. The tax agency will take 20 percent of a disclosed account's assets based on its peak value in the previous six years. In cases of inactive accounts, the agency will confiscate as little as 5 percent.
The more than 14 700 voluntary disclosures announced on Tuesday are almost double the amount the IRS reported on October 14, a day before the partial amnesty programme ended. They are in addition to the accounts UBS must turn over to the IRS.
Switzerland said on Tuesday it would turn over details of UBS accounts held by US residents who had more than Sf1 million (R7.3m) in undeclared assets.
Other benchmarks included US citizens who were beneficiaries of "offshore company accounts", according to a statement distributed by the Swiss Justice Ministry.
In both cases, the review period was between 2001 and 2008, and there had to be a suspicion of "tax fraud and the like".
Swiss authorities withheld details of how the accounts were selected for 90 days so the information would not interfere with the IRS's voluntary disclosure programme.
The criteria will be used as a template by the US to pursue banks and tax evaders in other financial centres. - Bloomberg
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