Keeping money in an offshore bank account is not illegal. However, under United States law, you are required to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Account each year. You must also comply with other tax requirements, including reporting any and all income earned to the Internal Revenue Service and paying taxes on the income that your offshore investments produce.Read More

The Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) started in 2009 and has allowed more than 55,800 taxpayers to come forward and voluntarily report that they failed to file their annual Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Account. Taxpayers have paid more than $9.9 billion in taxes, interest and penalties after coming forward and voluntarily admitting to the IRS that they didn't declare their offshore accounts at foreign banks. While this seems like a substantial amount of money, OVDP was actually created in order to help taxpayers limit the penalties they could face for undeclared offshore accounts.Read More

FBAR stands for Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Account. It is one of the most important forms that offshore accountholders must file with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. It must be filed in order to avoid very substantial financial losses. Civil penalties imposed for failure to file FBARs have, in some cases, exceeded the value of offshore account balances. There is also the potential for criminal charges for failure to file.Read More

If you have any financial interest in offshore bank accounts, or if you have signatory authority on any foreign bank accounts, you are required to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR).  You must file this form for bank accounts, brokerage accounts, mutual funds, and most other types of foreign accounts.   The annual filing date for FBARs is April 15, and the maximum extension of the filing deadline is six-months, according to the IRS.Read More