News & Events

The Panama Papers is the name that has been given to 11.5 million documents which were obtained from a Panama law firm server and which were made public. The Papers contained information on more than 214,488 offshore entities and the papers demonstrate the ways in which offshore entities, offshore financial accounts, and other tools are used to hide money and protect privacy.

Recently, a 48-year-old Credit Suisse AG banker who worked at the North American desk for the bank entered a guilty plea with the U.S. government. The banker was considered a fugitive since 2011. Although he is a Swiss resident and an Italian citizen, this did not stop the U.S. government from going after him because of the role he played in helping U.S. citizens avoid complying with all of their income tax obligations.

Swiss banks have taken advantage of their namesake program, The Swiss Bank Program. This program provides amnesty to financial institutions from criminal prosecution if the banks take certain actions, like pay fines and turn over accountholder info. Banks are increasingly signing on, betraying their customers by giving the IRS extensive details about accounts.

Every U.S.- connected person with foreign bank accounts must file an annual Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Account (FBAR) if their foreign accounts had an aggregate balance of $10,000 or more at any point over the course of the year. FBARs are also called Form 114, and the form must be filed electronically by the filing deadline. This year, that deadline was June 30, 2016.