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Minimizing Penalties for Unreported Foreign Bank Accounts

By Bryan C. Skarlatos and Michael Sardar
March 26, 2010

Taxpayers with unreported foreign bank accounts are sweating bullets these days. The IRS is in the midst of an unprecedented crackdown on foreign bank accounts. The primary example is the criminal prosecution of UBS (f/k/a Union Bank of Switzerland). In February 2009, the criminal case was resolved by a deferred-prosecution agreement pursuant to which UBS agreed to pay a huge fine, cooperate with the IRS, and turn over the names of approximately 285 U.S. taxpayers with accounts at the bank. Shortly thereafter, UBS settled a civil summons proceeding with the IRS and agreed to provide the identities of another 4,450 U.S. taxpayers with accounts at the bank. These developments caused a surge of 15,000 taxpayers with foreign bank accounts to disclose voluntarily their previously unreported accounts to the IRS.

Although recent court decisions in Switzerland have ruled that it is illegal for UBS to turn over identifying information about its customers, both UBS and the IRS have announced that they intend to find a way around these court decisions and continue with the exchange of information so that they can avoid further litigation. Against this backdrop, the news media have reported that other Swiss bank employees are negotiating to sell stolen customer information to various taxing authorities around the world. The writing is on the wall: the veil of bank secrecy is being torn away, and secret foreign bank accounts are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

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