The Internal Revenue Service announced that 12,000 new applications came in from the 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative (OVDI) program that closed last week. This pushed the total to 30,000 since the program began in 2009.

The IRS has extends the deadline for the 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Intitiative (OVDI) to September 9, 2011 (from the original date of August 31, 2011). Further, the IRS has clarified what information needs to be provided by September 9, 2011, in the event that all the documents required under the OVDI are not ready to be provided by that date.

On Wednesday, July 6, 2011, the Swiss government adopted standards on banking secrecy laid out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, which will allow foreign authorities to pursue citizens suspected of using hidden Swiss accounts for tax evasion.

The Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced on June 28, 2011, that Dr. Arvind Ahuja of Wisconsin was indicted on four counts of willfully filing materially false tax returns and four counts of failing to file Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARs).

Indian-Americans seek review of FBAR rules and the IRS’ 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative.

In Notice 2011-54, the IRS has extended the deadline for persons who have signature authority over, but no financial interest in, foreign financial accounts to file Form TD F 90-22.1, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR). They now have until November 1, 2011, to report their signature authority over such accounts during 2009 and earlier years. The deadline for 2010, however, remains unchanged at June 30, 2011.

IRS Posts New Frequently Asked Questions for the 2011 OVDI Program

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.

The IRS issued a new notice, Notice 2001-31, providing guidance to taxpayers on how they should answer questions on their 2010 federal income tax and information returns relating to foreign financial accounts (FFAs).