Offshore tax rule hits soon - Portland Business Journal:

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That is when the U.S. government expectds you to tell themif you’ve been evading taxews by not reporting the According to local attorneys and CPAs, the new reporting requirements for offshore accounts could result in the loss of millionxs for some taxpayers. The new rules are also spurring a huge movemenf of offshore money backinto U.S. accounts, said attorney Martin Presws oflaw firm. The U.S. has been gearing up for a crackdownn on offshore tax evasion for Two South Florida yacht brokers have alreadyg been hit with tax evasionn charges in connection with Swiss bank accountswat . Technically, people have unti l Sept. 23 to seek a so-called IRS amnestgy from prosecution.
But an earlier deadline of June 30 is for reportin of theTreasury Department’zs FBAR form – Foreign Bank and Financiak Accounts – for 2008. “I am urging people to make a decisionn about whether to seek the program before Press said. “There have been lots of Americans who have had offshoree accountsand haven’t checke the box on their tax return.” The minimukm penalty for “non-willful failure” to file an FBAR is set at with a penalty of $100,000 for deliberatelyg avoiding to file. In South Florida’sx international population, the offshors tax problem is widespread. But not everyones intentionally evaded paying taxeson funds.
“We’ve seen this in a numbetr of people who had accounts offshore before theymoved here, and believe they had no need to disclose said Scott Berger, CPA with “Rightfully or they haven’t disclosed According to Berger, if you became a U.S. citizebn at some point, you have to disclose offshores money fortax purposes, even if that money was made beford you moved to the U.S. Pressd sits on the ’s tax section, with the Committer on Civil and CriminalTax Penalty. He said he has asked officialx if they will treaty intentional tax evasion differently than cases where people moved tothe U.S. and simplyh didn’t realize they have to pay taxes onoffshore accounts.
He said he doesn’t know the answer yet. Berger said he’sa heard from some peopled who are defiant and will refuse to report offshore money. “Basically the attitude is that they got away with it for yearsand don’t believe they’ll be discovered,” Berger Even under the exemptionw now being offered, the penalties are A taxpayer must report the highest level of offshoree accounts for the last six yearx and pay 20 perceng of that. That means an account that hit a highof $10 milliom in 2005 but fell to $2 million because of the global recession wouldr be wiped out – the penalty for reportinbg it now would be 20 percenr of the $10 million.
Presas said the government also expectsx taxpayers to pay 20 percent of earnings for thatentirs six-year period. Press said many people in South Florida are facing the dilemma now about whether to reportor not, and few are talkin g about it openly. “We understand the government is being inundater andthey don’t have enough people to handlr it,” Press said. In the accounting firms like Kaufman are busywith “It’s certainly creating a lot of need for advisoryt services, and it does generate fees and revenue for us and for the law Berger said.