In the past, United States taxpayers with offshore accounts and foreign assets have been caught using these accounts to hide income from the IRS in order to avoid paying taxes on the funds. This practice is considered tax fraud, and the IRS is constantly identifying those individuals with undisclosed foreign financial accounts and assets in order to pursue civil penalties and/or criminal charges against them.
If you have undisclosed offshore accounts or assets, it is not enough to file amended returns. You must also report the account to the IRS in order to avoid civil penalties and criminal prosecution.
What You Need to Know
The resources that the IRS uses to identify people with undisclosed accounts are only increasing in number and availability. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, for example, became law in 2010 and was specifically drafted to target United States taxpayers with undisclosed foreign accounts.
It also included Code Sec. 6038D, which requires certain United States taxpayers with foreign accounts and assets, if the sum value of them exceeds $50,000, to report the account(s) to the IRS on an annual basis. The IRS also identifies this sort of non-compliance using tax treaties, whistleblowers, and other resources.
If you have undisclosed foreign accounts or assets, now is the time to report them. Simply waiting for the IRS to contact you is not a good idea. When a non-compliant taxpayer goes through the disclosure process, he can be expected to pay a percentage of the full amount of his offshore-related underpayments, failure to pay penalties, failure to file penalties, and other fees and penalties depending on the account and circumstances. Waiting will only increase the amount you will have to pay.
In Need of a Law Firm You Can Count On?
There’s no doubt about it — being under investigation by the IRS is a place that no one wants to find themselves. The good news is that if you turn to the Law Offices of Robert J. DeGroot in your time of need, we’ll mount a tenacious defense for your case to ensure that your rights are protected at every step of the way. It can be stressful, to be sure, but there’s nothing like having experience by your side and our founding attorney has nearly five decades of experience fighting for cases just like yours.
If you have undisclosed foreign accounts or assets or you are under IRS investigation, contact the firm of Robert. J. DeGroot! We have decades of experience with tax fraud cases in the Newark area.
