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Meanwhile, 14,700 taxpayers who have held secret overseas accounts to avoid paying taxes have taken advantage of a federal amensty program and have disclosed their accounts. Think about that. These are wealthy people who year after year have benefited from tax evasion.
More that 14,700 taxpayers have disclosed secret foreign bank accounts, the Internal Revenue Services said Tuesday, taking advantage of an amnesty program that let them avoid the possibility of prosecution for tax evasion.
The I.R.S. commissioner, Douglas H. Shulman, told a news conference about the voluntary disclosures while announcing the criteria being used by the Swiss banking giant UBS to turn over the names of American clients as part of a settlement of a tax evasion case.
“We have now gained access to thousands of taxpayers and bank accounts that we have never had before,” Mr. Shulman said, adding that it had sent “a shock wave around the world.”
UBS agreed under legal pressure last August to turn over the names of about 4,450 American clients suspected by the I.R.S. of using the bank’s offshore services to evade taxes. But the selection criteria had been withheld until Tuesday; the I.R.S. had hoped that the fear of prosecution would entice taxpayers to come forward. NYT
