Cross-border tax issues, expat filing rules, and international tax policy — because taxes don’t stop at the U.S. border.
About 500 families may have a little bit less to be thankful for this morning: Swiss tax authorities have announced that they have notified the first UBS 500 clients whose names will be turned over to US government officials. The 500 clients are the first of 4,450 names to be released under an agreement reached…
It was a question posed to US taxpayers by the IRS in the wake of the UBS scandal: do you feel lucky? The US offered US taxpayers the opportunity to voluntarily disclose offshore bank accounts as part of an amnesty program earlier this year. The choice? Come forward now and escape criminal prosecution or take…
The Dutch are well known for Delft pottery, wooden shoes, legalized prostitution, and windmills. Perhaps not surprisingly, many of those things haven’t caught on in all areas of the world (oh c’mon, tell me that you have a pair of wooden shoes in your closet). I have a feeling that list of things that aren’t…
Who says that a little pressure doesn’t work these day? Singapore and Liechtenstein have both apparently decided that they wanted to be one of the cool kids after all. This week, both countries received word that they are slated to be removed from the dreaded gray list of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development…
Suddenly, it’s not so fashionable to have your money in Swiss banks. That’s sooo February 2009. This season, all of the trendy tax evaders are heading somewhere else. In the wake of increased activity by IRS to track down previously undisclosed assets (joined by the taxing authorities in countries like the UK and Germany), banks…
When it comes to economics, the US and UK tend to find themselves on the same page. A recent example is their consolidated front over the need for banking transparency – both countries took a tough approach with respect to the banking secrecy laws of in Switzerland and Luxembourg. But this weekend, the US and…
I’m going all Clairee from Steel Magnolias on you. I’m on the radio! You can check out my interview with Jeff Horwich on Minnesota Public Radio about “sneaky rich people” here (I’m right after the vaccine report):
The Tax Justice Network has recently released its list of the most secretive financial jurisdictions in the world. And who topped the list? Luxembourg? Switzerland? Hong Kong? Caymans? Nope, it’s the United States. Yeah, of America. But don’t get too excited with your finger pointing. It has little to do with most of the US….
Jeffrey Chernick, a toy salesman out of New York, was sentenced on Friday to three months in prison for hiding millions of dollars from the IRS. Upon his release, Chernick will serve six months’ house arrest and six months’ probation. The judge did not impose an additional fine as Chernick is already subject to more…
The IRS amnesty program for taxpayers who had previously failed to disclose income from offshore accounts ended last week on October 15. By all accounts, it was wildly successful. According to IRS Commish Doug Shulman, nearly 7,500 taxpayers came forward to make voluntarily disclosures in hopes of avoiding criminal prosecutions. Dollar amounts ranged from $10,000…