Offshore Account UpdatePosted in on February 28, 2020
In January, we discussed the IRS’s announcement of the first major crackdown executed by the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5), a collaborative international law enforcement effort focused on combating the illegal use of offshore banks and shelter schemes for tax evasion. In February, the IRS released an update on the J5’s enforcement efforts in a News Release captioned, “J5 tax chiefs closing the net on global tax evasion.”
Read MoreOffshore Account UpdatePosted in on January 31, 2020
For years, individuals who inadvertently failed to report offshore assets to the federal government were able to do so under the IRS’s Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP). However, the IRS closed the OVDP in 2018. In 2019 and beyond, the primary option available to federal taxpayers is the IRS’s Streamlined Disclosure Program for Offshore Accounts.
Read MoreIn 2018, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) formed the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement, known as the J5, with tax authorities from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. On January 23, 2020, the IRS announced the J5’s first major law enforcement initiative – a series of coordinated investigations that resulted in the takedown of a Central American bank suspected of “facilitating money laundering and tax evasion for customers across the globe.” According to the IRS, indictments of the bank’s clients are expected to follow.
Read MoreOffshore Account UpdatePosted in on December 31, 2019
There was some big news in the world of federal tax law in 2019. From the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announcing that it would begin actively targeting cryptocurrency investors to the European Union removing several countries from its list of disfavored tax havens, tax-related news made headlines around the globe.
Read MoreOffshore Account UpdatePosted in on November 4, 2019
In 2017, the European Union established a “blacklist” and a “gray list” of countries and territories which its finance ministers identified as havens for tax avoidance schemes. Blacklisted countries face stricter transactional controls than other nations, while gray list countries and territories are those that have made a demonstrated (but unmet) commitment to comply with EU standards – and that risk being blacklisted if they do not move forward with reform.
Read More