From The Tax Adviser: Amnesty for Offshore Tax Evasion.

Taxation; United States. Internal Revenue Service; Tax amnesty; Administrative sanctions; Credit cards; Human resource accounting

The article presents information on the amnesty program of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for offshore tax evasion. According to the IRS, eligible taxpayers who apply by April 15, 2003, may be able to avoid criminal prosecution and some civil penalties. Filing an amnesty request will not bar the IRS from imposing Internal Revenue Code section 6651 late-payment penalties and section 6662 accuracy-related penalties or from auditing a taxpayer's related return and/or proposing changes. The credit cards can provide U.S. taxpayers easy access to offshore funds and accounts in bank-secrecy or tax-haven countries that allow income to be hidden from U.S. authorities. The service currently is investigating several thousand of these accounts. Its Criminal Investigation Division, however, lacks the financial and human resources to pursue all of them. The initiative permits eligible taxpayers to file or amend their returns and pay back taxes and interest. Taxpayers who demonstrate to the IRS that they cannot pay all the tax liabilities can request other payment arrangements.