Posted on 09/12/2011 8:12:57 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
he United States is drafting legal documents that seek to force nearly a dozen Swiss banks and international banks with Swiss branches to disclose the identities of American clients evading billions of dollars in taxes, sources briefed on the matter said.
The drafting of the documents -- grand jury subpoenas and broad requests known as John Doe summonses -- is a fresh U.S. shot across the bow at Switzerland and its battered tradition of bank secrecy.
The Alpine country, a noted tax haven that is the global capital of offshore private banking, has been under attack from U.S. Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service officials conducting a broad criminal investigation into private banking services that U.S. authorities say enabled wealthy Americans to evade billions of dollars in taxes.
The documents could be served within a month or so on 10 banks, including some with headquarters outside Switzerland, these persons said.
Charles Miller, a Justice Department spokesman, declined to comment.
The legal pressure signals a new front in Washington's fight against Swiss bank secrecy, a battle that in recent years has resulted in scores of Swiss bankers and advisers being charged, dozens of American clients indicted and several large banks investigated.
The Justice Department served a target letter in July on Credit Suisse AG (CSGN.VX), Switzerland's second-largest bank, notifying it that it was the focus of a criminal investigation. American authorities also are probing HSBC (HSBA.L) and smaller Swiss private banks and cantonal banks, including Basler Kantonalbank, Wegelin and Julius Baer (BAER.VX).
Talks between the Swiss and U.S. governments to resolve the broad investigation broke down in June. Switzerland wants its banks to pay a multi-billion dollar fine, but the U.S. side wants client names as well.
(Excerpt) Read more at uk.reuters.com ...
MORE HERE : http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tax-deadline-looms-for-people-with-money-overseas-2011-08-26?link=google
Tax deadline looms for people with money overseas
By Andrea Coombes, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — If you have a bank account or other assets overseas that you’ve failed to report to the IRS, you’re almost out of time to take part in an amnesty program that could help you avoid steep tax penalties.
Yet tax attorneys say some people are unaware they are on the wrong side of the tax rules — even as the IRS shows no signs of letting up on going after money stashed overseas.
The tax agency’s dogged chase of bankers and U.S. customers of Swiss banking giant UBS AG /quotes/zigman/411392/quotes/nls/ubs UBS -1.85% has blasted a gaping hole in the wall of Swiss bank secrecy. In the latest news, earlier this month, a former UBS banker was charged with conspiring to hide more than $215 million in 60 accounts he opened for U.S. clients. Already, UBS had agreed to release to the IRS the names of about 4,500 customers. Read more about the UBS banker. Read more: U.S., Switzerland agree to exchange tax information.
And the IRS is pursuing accounts at HSBC /quotes/zigman/207333/quotes/nls/hbc HBC -2.77% , too. Read more: IRS goes after HSBC customers with money overseas.
“A couple of years ago, there was nothing more secure than a Swiss bank account. Not anymore,” said Jeffrey Kolodny, a partner in the private client services group of law firm Cozen O’Connor in New York.
If the IRS finds your account before you report it, you may face a bill totaling 50% of the account’s value for each year it wasn’t reported to the IRS — and that’s just the beginning. “Generally, that goes back six or seven years,” Kolodny said. “You’re talking 300% to 350% of the account before you even get started. That doesn’t include unpaid taxes, the penalties and interest on unpaid taxes.”
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Anyone important got the message three years ago to move their accounts to the Cayman Islands or the Bahamas.
I hope the Swiss government and their banks just metaphorically wipe their butts with the papers and send ‘em back.
Another imperial extension of the IRS to prevent US citizens from getting beyond the reach of their own government.
How does the United States government get the authority to “seek to force” a business in Switzerland to do anything?
This is an opportunity for the Saudis, and any other country that can thumb its nose at US orders, to establish secret banking.
RE: Anyone important got the message three years ago to move their accounts to the Cayman Islands or the Bahamas.
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If the USA can bully a bigger country like Switzerland, what’s to stop them from bullying smaller places like Cayman and the Bahamas?
The solution to this tyranny is we the people. Unfortunately I don’t see anyone in Congress ( even Republicans, other than maybe Ron Paul ) actively doing anything about it.
Many new immigrants (most of them skilled and educated) who have been here for just a few years and who still have money from where they came from, are now considered tax evaders.
I know of a naturalized Taiwanese Engineer who graduated from MIT and works in Silicon Valley who inherited a good chunk of money from his father in Taiwan 2 years ago who forgot to declare that money in his tax forms (it is in a UBS account in Taipei). He’s probably going to be targeted by the IRS.
We are creating criminals out of law abiding citizens with this stupid tax system of ours.
By preventing Swiss financial institutions from operating branches in the US.
RE: How does the United States government get the authority to “seek to force” a business in Switzerland to do anything?
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Simple, by threatening two of their biggest banks who do business here in the USA — UBS and Credit Suisse.
In essence they tell the Swiss — you want two of your biggest banks to survive to do profitable business in our country as they have been for decades? DO AS WE SAY OR ELSE...
GIVE US THE NAMES OF YOUR AMERICAN DEPOSITORS NOW !
Just another step to the "Globalist's Plans".
We are facing the ultimate evil. Stipped of national sovereignty, forced with a global currency, tracked at ever step and reduced to surfs. Despicable vermin. (I don't have money in foreign accounts, not much here either)
instead of voluntary encouragment of spending money in the USA, the Obama administration encourages further entrenchment. Those with any brains have already moved their money outside the usa to banks with no connection to the usa.
stuipid is as obmama does.
BTW, regarding the Taiwanese Engineer that I know.
That money in the Taiwan UBS bank has NEVER ENTERED THE USA. It was made OUTSIDE the USA, by HIS FAMILY, IN Asia. He inherited it AFTER his father’s death and it is deposited in a bank in Taiwan.
In my view, it is totally unjust and unfair for the USA to lay claim on that money ( and any income from interest it makes ) solely because this person has an American green card.
There really ought to be an outcry from the conservatives regarding our tax laws even if it does not affect them directly.
You remember the famous quotation during the Holocaust :
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out — Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.
Is that a smart thing to do? I mean, we might be asking them for a bailout before too much longer...
RE: Is that a smart thing to do?
A very stupid thing to do.
Unfortunately, I do not see any Republican (other than Ron Paul ) making a big issue out of this.
If you really want money to come home to the USA, there is one very simple thing you can do -— TAX GENEROSITY.
COMPETE with all Tax havens out there.
Send a big message to all Americans with Accounts overseas — Hey — if you repatriate your money back home, you will NOT be penalized for that and that same amount of money will in future, be taxed at a rate competitive with Switzerland.
In fact, tell all rich foreigners that if they deposit money in America ( NOT TAKEN ILLEGALLY OF COURSE ), they will be taxed at a rate competitive with all Tax Havens out there.
Use the carrot, not the stick.
Simply threaten to go into the American offices & seize everything & jail everyone that works there. However this can have a serious backlash ie the Swiss seize American corporate accounts & basically tell American holders of Swiss patents to get f@#ked, & tell the American govt. to find someone else to be a neutral negotiator in foreign trouble spots with the Swiss telling the barbarians to stand Americans up against a wall & shoot them.
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