IRS Announces Changes To The Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) Important June 30, 2014 deadline should not be missed!

The changes announced by IRS on June 18, 2014 make important modifications to the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (“OVDP”). The changes include:

• Requiring additional information from taxpayers applying to the program;

• Eliminating the existing reduced penalty percentage for certain non-willful taxpayers in light of the expansion of the streamlined procedures;

• Requiring taxpayers to submit all account statements and pay the offshore penalty at the time of the OVDP application;

• Enabling taxpayers to submit voluminous records electronically rather than on paper;

• Increasing the offshore penalty percentage (from 27.5% to 50%) if, before the taxpayer’s OVDP pre-clearance request is submitted, it becomes public that a financial institution where the taxpayer holds an account or another party facilitating the taxpayer’s offshore arrangement is under investigation by the IRS or Department of Justice.

Stay tuned for more details but be mindful of the first new deadline below.

For taxpayers currently in the 2012 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative (“OVDI”) there is a deadline of June 30, 2014 to convert your case to be under the new procedures which could substantially reduce your penalties to 5% and in some cases even eliminate them.  Taxpayers whose cases are still open in the 2011 OVDI program may also qualify for the new procedures if the request is made no later than June 30, 2014.

What Should You Do?

Don’t let another deadline slip by. If you have never reported your foreign investments on your U.S. Tax Returns or even if you have already quietly disclosed or in 2012 OVDI, you should seriously consider participating in the IRS’s 2014 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (“OVDP”). Once the IRS contacts you, you cannot get into this program and would be subject to the maximum penalties (civil and criminal) under the tax law. Taxpayers who hire an experienced tax attorney in Offshore Account Voluntary Disclosures should result in avoiding any pitfalls and gaining the maximum benefits conferred by this program.

Protect yourself from excessive fines and possible jail time. Let the tax attorneys of the Law Offices Of Jeffrey B. Kahn, P.C. located in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and elsewhere in California qualify you for OVDP.

Description: Let the tax attorneys of the Law Offices Of Jeffrey B. Kahn, P.C. resolve your IRS tax problems, get you in compliance with your FBAR filing obligations, and minimize the chance of any criminal investigation or imposition of civil penalties.