Not long ago, U.S. settlements in the hundreds of millions of dollars for violations of American law by a foreign bank seemed unlikely, if not out of the realm of possibility altogether. Then came the $780 million deferred prosecution agreement with UBS AG in 2009.
U.S. officials will soon order banks, credit card companies and firms linked to tax compliance to turn over data on whether their clients are illegally hiding assets offshore, IRS agents said Monday.
Hundreds of Swiss bankers are suing to stop their old employers from turning over to the United States details of their interactions with suspected American tax evaders, according to a tax attorney.
In the wake of criticism from a government watchdog, the Internal Revenue Service is close to finalizing changes to a limited amnesty program for Americans illegally hiding funds overseas and dodging reporting requirements, the head of the tax agency said Tuesday.
A Geneva court's ruling clearing the way for bankers to know whether their employers have identified them to American investigators threatens to complicate a negotiated U.S.-Swiss tax deal, say sources.
A U.S.-Swiss plan to resolve a tax evasion dispute may absolve Switzerland's government from further action but will prove costly and time-consuming for participating banks, say attorneys.
The indictment of a now-defunct Swiss financial institution and threatened charges against the country's largest publicly-owned bank fueled Switzerland's decision last month to seek a broad data-sharing agreement with American officials.
The IRS has identified multiple U.S. banks that it could issue subpoenas to as part of an effort to determine whether international institutions have aided American tax evaders, a former agency official said Monday.
For the second time this year, a U.S. judge has granted federal investigators broad authority to review a global bank's anti-money laundering records as part of an offshore tax evasion probe.
The U.S. crackdown on tax evasion that began with the UBS AG settlement is prompting widespread changes in how foreign banks serve American clients and bringing individual bankers under greater scrutiny.