Oldest Swiss Bank Indicted for Tax Fraud

The National Taxpayer Advocate (NTA) has issued a Taxpayer Advocate Directive , complaining about unfair treatment of certain participants in the 2009 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP). It appears that the NTA shared the same frustration with the OVDP that many tax practitioners, including our tax attorneys, have felt over the infamous Q&A 35 published by the IRS in the Frequently Asked Questions and Answers for the 2009 program.

Today, the IRS announced that they reopened the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program for taxpayers with undeclared foreign accounts.

On January 3, 2012, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York charged three Swiss bankers with hiding more than $1.2 billion in U.S. taxpayer accounts from the IRS. The announcement was made by Preet Bharar, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney.

The Internal Revenue Service released details of its plan to show some leniency on the penalties for failure to file tax returns and Foreign Bank Account Reports for the American citizens living abroad.

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.

The IRS is reminding taxpayers that the deadline for the 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative (OVDI) will expire on August 31, 2011.

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.