Swiss Account

By Lance Wallach

The Internal Revenue Service to extend until October 15th its limited amnesty program for taxpayers in the United States with unreported income to foreign accounts, according to government officials.

The special voluntary disclosure program was launched in March after UBS AG provided the names of holders of more than 250 account as part of a judicial settlement. The IRS said the extension comes after "repeated requests" from tax professionals who need more time to help taxpayers enter the program. More than 3,000 taxpayers had submitted to date for all of last year. The program has received undue attention because of a dispute between the U.S. and Swiss governments on the identities of U.S. taxpayers holding 10 billion dollars in secret accounts at UBS 52,000. In August, the Swiss government agreed to identify more or less 4450 UBS account holders and, possibly, many other accounts.

1. There is no discernible pattern as customers have been selected, ruining the hopes of those who would have thought they could avoid scrutiny because their accounts were too small or lacked evidence of intent to evade tax.

Taxpayers may decide to admit for many reasons, including they want to sleep at night. Another is that they have no access to money anyway. Many of those accepted into the program to disclose the IRS will owe back taxes, interest and penalty special work to 40% to 60% of account balance, plus legal and accounting fees. It is unlikely to initiate criminal proceedings against any person who comes forward.

Those who have been advised that their identity is about to be revealed to the IRS can appeal the disclosure of information in the Swiss courts. U.S. law requires that any taxpayer who is advising the Department of Justice. Failing to do so to a criminal matter worse. If you're in this kind of situation do something now!.

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Lance Wallach, CLU, ChFC, CIMC, speaks and writes extensively on financial planning, retirement plans, and strategies for reducing taxes. It is an independent U.S. developer during the CPA and the instructor and the author of numerous bestsellers on abusive tax shelters, IRS crackdown, attacks and other tax issues. He speaks to more than 20 national conventions annually and writes for more than 50 national publications. For more information and additional articles on these topics, visit www.vebaplan.com , www.taxlibrary.us, or call lawyer4audits.com 516-938 - 5007.

The information provided in this document is not intended as legal, accounting, financial or any other type of advice for any specific individual or other entity. You should contact an appropriate professional for such advice.