Oldest Swiss Bank Indicted for Tax Fraud

Credit Suisse AG, the second largest bank of Switzerland, has notified some of its U.S. clients that it will disclose their identities and account details to the Internal Revenue Service.

Swiss government has apparently proposed a multibillion-dollar settlement with the U.S. in response to the allegations that it helped American taxpayers avoid billions of dollars in U.S. taxes.

U.S. government decided to prosecute a taxpayer who made a so-called “quiet disclosure” of his offshore account at HSBC.

On April 7, 2011, the U.S. Justice Department asked a federal district court in San Francisco to force HSBC USA to disclose the names of their U.S. customers suspected of having secret bank accounts in India.

U.S. Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service announced that four Swiss bankers, all working at some point for Credit Suisse Group, were indicted by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia and charged with conspiring with other Swiss bankers to defraud the United States.

After announcing a new offshore account amnesty on February 8, 2011, the IRS began to provide more information about the program. You can read Frequently Asked Questions and Answers published by the IRS here: 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative Frequently Asked Questions and Answers.

The IRS also published the forms and documents to be used in the disclosure process. You can find the documents here: 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative Documents and Forms.

On Tuesday, February 8, 2011, the Internal Revenue Service announced a new amnesty program for taxpayers with hidden offshore bank accounts. The new Voluntary Disclosure Initiative is intended to bring people with unreported offshore income and undisclosed offshore accounts back into compliance.

The Internal Revenue Service said that it would soon announce a new amnesty program aimed at encouraging wealthy Americans with hidden offshore bank accounts to come forward, declare their money and pay taxes owed.

U.S. prosecutors have charged an ex-UBS banker with tax fraud for encouraging his wealthy American clients not to disclose to U.S. tax authorities that they had money in offshore accounts.