Over 14,000 Seek Amnesty for Offshore Accounts

Over 14,000 Americans have taken advantage of the IRS amnesty program by disclosing secret offshore accounts.  It is estimated that 12,000 of those disclosures came after the Swiss government agreed to reveal information about UBS accounts, which I reported here.  

According to Ryan J. Donmoyer and David Voreacos, IRS Gets Secret Account Data From 14,700 Americans, Bloomberg, Nov. 17, 2009, the voluntarily disclosed accounts will translate into billions in income for the U.S. government: 

The partial amnesty program, announced in March, let taxpayers repatriate offshore assets and avoid jail by paying back taxes, interest and reduced penalties. The tax agency will take 20 percent of a disclosed account’s assets based on its peak value in the previous six years. In cases of inactive accounts, the agency will confiscate as little as 5 percent.

Special thanks to David S. Luber (Attorney at law, Florida Probate Attorney Wills and Estates Law Firm) for bringing this article to my attention.