The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has been ineffective in its collection of unpaid taxes from international U.S. taxpayers, according to a report published on September 30 by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). The report is the result of an audit conducted by TIGTA into the current effectiveness of the IRS’s efforts at stopping offshore tax non-compliance, and it found several significant procedural and management flaws in IRS procedure. In the report, TIGTA points t...

Increasing implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) will soon cause problems for U.S. holders of unreported bank accounts in India, according to many tax analysts. FATCA is a recently-implemented U.S. law that requires foreign banks (under the threat of a 30% withholding tax on U.S.-source payments) to disclose the information of U.S. account holders to the IRS for use in investigations of offshore tax evasion. It has been reported that many U.S. citizens have been moving...

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has released new guidance for taxpayers applying for the streamlined offshore voluntary disclosure program in a new FAQ page on its website.  Implemented in June 2014, the streamlined procedures are designed to lessen penalties for taxpayers who can certify that their failure to report an offshore bank account was non-willful.  In the new guidelines, the IRS has clarified several important features of the program, including the residency requirements, some prac...