A father and son have been convicted of federal tax evasion charges after authorities say they sold a hotel and used offshore bank accounts to hide $33 million from the Internal Revenue Service. Los Angeles tax lawyers and others had been closely watching this case, which was the first trial…
Felix M. Mathis, a tax lawyer in the Swiss law firm of Froriep Renggli LLP, was indicted last month for conspiring to commit tax fraud with Andrew B. Silva, and others. The tax fraud scheme described how Mathis helped Silva set up a Lichenstein Trust, and advised him on evading…
Credit Suisse’s offices in Germany were raided by German tax officials looking for evidence of tax fraud. According to an article by Judy Dempsey in the New York Times all 13 German branches of Swiss bank Credit Suisse were searched, and it would take weeks for German tax officials to…
In February I offshore bank accounts at HSBC had been indicted for FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report) violations and related tax attorneys had been contacted regarding their clients’ undisclosed foreign bank accounts held at HSBC. Apparently letters had come from Department of Justice prosecutor Kevin Downing who has been taking…
Failure to file a Foreign Bank Account Report (FBAR) on TDF 90-22.1 is crime under the Bank Secrecy Act punishable by up to 5 years in jail. Failure to file an FBAR usually goes hand in hand with tax fraud, and other tax problems. There is a common belief that…
Foreign Bank Account Reports (FBAR) on Form TDF 90-22.1 are due in Detroit, Michigan on June 30th. Some CPAs and tax attorneys seem to be relying on an exception contained in IRS Notice 2010-23 which provides that persons who have signature authority, but no financial interest in a foreign bank…
The Swiss Parliament has decided to allow UBS to turn over the names of its Swiss bank account customers to the IRS. This means that the names of 4,450 UBS customers who are suspected of committing tax fraud, and FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Reports, TDF 90-22.1) violations will be turned…
UBS Swiss Bank account owners who did not make a voluntary disclosure to the IRS last year breathed a sigh of relief when the lower house of the Swiss Parliament voted against amending the U.S. Swiss Tax Treaty to allow the handover of the names of U.S. holders of Swiss…
A couple of weeks ago I was at the ABA Tax Section Meeting which as I mentioned previously gathered tax lawyers from around the country. Since I spent most of my time at meetings involving FBARs (Foreign Bank Account Report TD F90-22.1), I missed another meeting. It turns out that…
According to Kevin Downing, a seniortax fraud through offshore bank accounts, in addition to the UBS cases. According to Reuters, Downing made the announcement in a lecture in Singapore last week. Along with a DOJ team, he is currently touring a number of Asian cities including Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing…