The IRS has announced that it will begin winding down its Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) on September 28, 2018. Under the OVDP, a taxpayer with undisclosed foreign assets or income could come forward to pay tax, interest and reduced penalties in exchange for immunity from criminal prosecution. The IRS will continue its separate Streamlined OVDP, which is only available to certain taxpayers unaware of their international reporting obligations.
The IRS made the announcement now in order to give taxpayers who may still want to come forward time to do so. “Taxpayers have had several years to come into compliance with U.S. tax laws under this program,” said Acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter in a statement. “All along, we have been clear that we would close the program at the appropriate time, and we have reached that point. Those who still wish to come forward have time to do so.”
The program has been very successful, collecting more than US$11 billion in tax, interest and penalties from more than 50,000 taxpayers. With advances in international reporting and information-sharing regimes, the IRS has also aggressive pursued taxpayers who have tried to hide assets abroad. Since 2009, it has indicted 1,545 taxpayers for criminal violations related to international activities with 671 indicted specifically on international criminal tax violations.
Even with the OVDP ending, the IRS will not stop vigorously pursuing international tax evaders. Any US taxpayer who may have unreported assets or income abroad should come forward now and take advantage of the OVDP while it is still available. Otherwise, come September, such taxpayers could face huge penalties and potentially even prison.
About Denton’s Tax Controversy
Dentons’ Tax Controversy team has successfully represented over 100 clients in various OVPD and streamlined OVPD proceedings, addressing a wide variety of tax compliance issues from taxpayers all across the globe. In addition, Dentons is one of few firms that has experience litigating Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) penalties under the Bank Secrecy Act, which are almost always at issue in OVDP proceedings.
If you would like to discuss the above further, please contact any of the members of the Dentons Tax Controversy team.
