IRS Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program, What It Means

The Internal Revenue Service has put together a brand new program that is known as the IRS offshore voluntary disclosure program. This program is a foreign entity though in the eyes of many tax payers. There are several who have never heard of the program and do not know or understand what it is and how it can really help them, so what is this program and what does it mean?

Starting with your 2011 federal tax return, the Internal Revenue Service put in place what is known as the Bank Secrecy Act. Under this, you much report all of your foreign bank and financial accounts if the total of the accounts when they are all added up exceeds $10,000 at any point during a year. This is a form that is going to be used by the Internal Revenue Service to fight against abuse of offshore bank accounts to avoid payingUnited Statestaxes. Some of the accounts that this will cover includes offshore bank accounts, mutual funds, hedge funds, debit card and prepaid credit card accounts, and more. There will be major fines for failing to disclose these accounts.

When you consider the effects that you will face from the Internal Revenue Service for not following the program, you will see the importance of making an IRS offshore voluntary disclosure. The offshore voluntary disclosure program is difficult to grasp which is why reaching out to expert such as the Law Offices of Jeffrey B. Kahn, P.C. can help.