Accountholders of secret Swiss bank accounts that failed to pay the appropriate taxes on their money were offered a limited-amnesty deal by the government so that they would come forward. However, the amnesty period has now ended, meaning that the accountholders that come forward now will face an increased chance of criminal prosecution.
More than 7,500 accountholders came forward to take advantage of the more lenient terms. Those that still want to turn themselves in, though, can still go through one of the IRS’s longstanding programs in order to do so. In fact, officials do not expect the end of the …read more

Following a deal between the IRS and Swiss bank UBS AG, an institution in which accountholders from all over the world could hide their money from their country’s tax, the identities of American accountholders have been made available to the proper authorities. This has led to cases like that of Juergen Homman, a New Jersey businessman, who has pleaded guilty to failing to tell the authorities about a $6.1 million account he had with UBS.
 
Homman pleaded guilty in a New Jersey federal court to not disclosing the account on tax returns from 2001 to 2007 and to not filing the …read more

Although the United States was the first country to undergo the process of extracting the names of tax-evading secret accountholders, France has followed suit in its crusade against French tax evaders. The European country, which has expressed its desire to be among the lead players in the global financial system, has managed to acquire over 3,000 names, many of which it suspects of tax evasion.
 
France has given the 3,000 suspected tax evaders a chance to come forward and accept their punishment, promising to take proper action against them if they choose to not come forward instead. The move comes after …read more

Last week, Switzerland’s UBS AG bank and the United States reached a deal that would allow the United States to finally be able to do something about taxpayers who hide their money in secret Swiss bank accounts. However, several Swiss financial experts have criticized the deal, stating that it will only cause an increase in pressure from other countries on Swiss secret banking.
According to Swiss banking expert Hans Geiger, the deal only benefits the IRS and the Swiss bank that created the deal, and that the rest of his country and its economy will only suffer from the deal. He …read more

While only a small proportion of the U.S. population has actually been suspected of using Swiss bank accounts to avoid paying significant sums of tax to the government, the days may be numbered for this dubious practice. That is because the United States and prominent Swiss bank UBS AG have reached an agreement that will expose secret account holders and deter any future secret accounts. 
 
Although the details of the deal have not yet been made public, many experts believe that the deal will involve the Swiss bank disclosing the names of the illicit accountholders in a way that does not …read more