News & Events

Global tax evasion has become a top focus throughout the United States and the rest of the developed nations as countries struggle with lingering budget shortages that are a holdover from the 2008 crash and following recession.  Countries are seeking to maximize their tax revenue by ensuring that people do not move money to foreign banks in order to avoid paying what is owed to the government. 

Kevin E.Thorn, Managing Partner of the Thorn Law Group discusses the recent effort by the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Justice to penalize and imprison U.S. taxpayers with undisclosed offshore accounts.

If you have any offshore financial accounts, you are required to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) to alert the Internal Revenue Service to your foreign investments. A failure to file FBARs can led to financial penalties, which in some cases have exceeded the value of the money kept in the foreign account. 

Kevin E. Thorn, Managing Partner of Thorn Law Group, discusses the importance of assessing whether the IRS’s new Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures are right for you.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department have been making a major effort to crack down on offshore accounts that U.S. citizens do not declare. In addition to allowing tax payers to face reduced penalties if they voluntarily report these accounts through an Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP), the authorities have been making deals with Swiss banks to turn over information on accounts in exchange for lesser penalties or avoiding prosecution.