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.  

Strict privacy laws have made banking an essential pillar of the Swiss economy. However, new treaties designed to prevent tax cheating through the use of offshore accounts are threatening the tradition of secrecy in Swiss banks. This has created upheaval within the industry. It is also raising concerns among U.S. taxpayers that money kept in offshore Swiss accounts may not be as safe, or as secret, as it used to be.  

Offshore voluntary disclosure programs (OVDP) make it possible to report offshore accounts to the Internal Revenue Service that you should have reported on in the past and didn’t. OVDP allows you to alert the IRS that you did not file the required Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) that you must file each year. Streamlined OVDP procedures limit the penalties that you face for a failure to file the required forms, and also provide amnesty so you will not have to worry about criminal prosecution.  

If you have an account offshore, the Report of Foreign Bank Account and Financial Accounts Report (FBAR) must be filed each year with the Internal Revenue Service to declare the account. If you have failed to file your FBAR and have not disclosed your foreign accounts, you could face penalties. You may be fined and even prosecuted for felony tax evasion and potentially sent to jail. 

The IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) allows taxpayers the opportunity to come forward and disclose offshore accounts that they may not have previously reported to the Internal Revenue Service as required.  Those who come forward may avoid criminal prosecution and avoid the harsh penalties that they could otherwise face if the government discovers the account before a disclosure is made.