There are many reasons to make offshore investments with foreign financial institutions, including diversifying your investment holdings, investing in different currencies, and protecting yourself in case of financial or political disasters.  However, offshore accounts are often treated with suspicion because taxing authorities believe investors with foreign financial accounts regularly fail to report those accounts to taxing authorities in their home country.Read More

The United States Department of Justice has entered into an agreement with a Swiss asset management firm. The firm will pay $5 million to settle allegations that it helped U.S. affiliated clients to evade their tax obligations. The firm, Prime Partners SA, is one of a huge number of foreign entities that have cooperated with the Department of Justice.Read More

If you have offshore accounts and you failed to comply with requirements to report those accounts, you should talk with a Washington DC tax attorney as soon as possible. The U.S. government has been aggressively cracking down on offshore investors, as well as on banks that cater to U.S. account holders. Many banks have turned over information on accountholders in exchange for avoiding prosecution for their parts in facilitating tax evasion, which means the IRS has information about a substantial number of offshore accounts – and you could be one of them.Read More

The Department of Justice and U.S. taxing authorities have been very aggressive in recent years in fighting the problem of offshore tax evasion. U.S. authorities have gone far beyond just investing foreign financial accounts and investments and are investigating a wide variety of tax-reduction techniques, including the use of insurance wrappers.Read More

Keeping money in an offshore bank account is not illegal. However, under United States law, you are required to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Account each year. You must also comply with other tax requirements, including reporting any and all income earned to the Internal Revenue Service and paying taxes on the income that your offshore investments produce.Read More