Will CRA follow the IRS to Foreign bank accounts?

Behind closed doors, we are told, this has been a point of discussion. However, if attacking a simple offshore “bank account” is difficult, imagine the difficulty of cracking open a properly composed trust for Canadian beneficiaries.

14,700 Taxpayers Voluntarily Disclosed Foreign Accounts to IRS
By WebCPA
November 17, 2009

Over 14,700 holders of foreign bank accounts told the Internal Revenue Service about the existence of the accounts under a voluntary disclosure program.

IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said the agency received voluntary disclosures about the presence of billions of dollars in assets in bank accounts located in 70 countries.

“To put it simply, this is a historic milestone for the nation’s hard-working taxpayers,” he said, according to the Associated Press.

The IRS had extended the program and offered to allow most of those who came forward voluntarily to avoid criminal prosecution for tax evasion. The agency has successfully prosecuted several UBS account holders who did not come forward voluntarily.



Saverio Manzo