Tax-Cheat Showdown: Fess Up or Stay Quiet?
By LAURA SAUNDERS
WSJ
The Internal Revenue Service is staging a massive poker game. It has invited 52,000 UBS AG account holders to the table.
Now that the U.S. and Swiss governments have resolved a longstanding dispute about disclosing the identities of secret Swiss bank accounts, the holders face an acute dilemma: Do they confess their tax-evasion sins and possibly give up a large portion of their offshore accounts? Or do they stay quiet, hoping to avoid detection, but risk far greater penalties or even criminal prosecution if exposed to authorities?
Their decision is made harder because the IRS is doing its best to keep account holders in the dark about both the timing and reasons for which names are disclosed. That is because the IRS hopes to use the threat of disclosure as leverage, coaxing offshore tax evaders to come clean on their own.
At this high-stakes game, numbers matter. A Swiss newspaper recently reported that the Swiss government will turn over 5,000 names, which is only a fraction of the total 52,000 accounts the IRS believes are used to avoid U.S. taxes. Some U.S. taxpayers hold more than one of the 52,000 accounts.
(Continued here.)
WSJ
The Internal Revenue Service is staging a massive poker game. It has invited 52,000 UBS AG account holders to the table.
Now that the U.S. and Swiss governments have resolved a longstanding dispute about disclosing the identities of secret Swiss bank accounts, the holders face an acute dilemma: Do they confess their tax-evasion sins and possibly give up a large portion of their offshore accounts? Or do they stay quiet, hoping to avoid detection, but risk far greater penalties or even criminal prosecution if exposed to authorities?
Their decision is made harder because the IRS is doing its best to keep account holders in the dark about both the timing and reasons for which names are disclosed. That is because the IRS hopes to use the threat of disclosure as leverage, coaxing offshore tax evaders to come clean on their own.
At this high-stakes game, numbers matter. A Swiss newspaper recently reported that the Swiss government will turn over 5,000 names, which is only a fraction of the total 52,000 accounts the IRS believes are used to avoid U.S. taxes. Some U.S. taxpayers hold more than one of the 52,000 accounts.
(Continued here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home