Washington – The Internal Revenue Service detailed plans on Monday to weed out wealthy, international tax cheats with renewed urgency.
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IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said the agency recently formed the Global High Wealth Industry task force to target investors with assets “in the neighborhood of $30 million.”
Shulman, as he addressed members of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Washington, DC., said that a more “holistic” approach was necessary to find international tax cheats, given the growth in Americans investing overseas, and the broad and complicated nature of modern financing.
“Our goal is to better understand the entire economic picture of the enterprise controlled by the wealthy individual and to assess the tax compliances of that overall enterprise,” he said. “We cannot do this by continuing to approach each tax return in the enterprise as a single and separate entity. We must understand and analyze the complete picture.”
Shulman said the IRS has already hired flow-through specialists and international examiners. Over time, he plans to add additional tax agents with expertise on economic trends, valuation issues, and other areas.
As part of an earlier effort to bring U.S.-based international taxpayers into compliance, Shulman said that 7,500 investors recently participated in an offshore amnesty program.
“These taxpayers are now back in the U.S. tax system and will be paying taxes on their offshore income in the years to come,” he said, noting that their accounts ranged from about $10,000 to $100 million.
The IRS has become more aggressive, but also more flexible, in tracking down international tax cheats. In August, the IRS struck a deal with the Swiss government, gaining access to thousands of UBS AG (UBS) accounts that Americans might have used to dodge tax payments.
30 million – whew! just missed the cut off.
I cannot imagine that even the richest taxapayer who is also an ehrleche yid would have anything to fear from an IRS audit. Study after study has shown that shomrei torah umitzvot are the most machmir when it comes to tax compliance because they take the concept of strict obedience to “dina da’malchusa” so seriously.
#2
Halevai
Some take Tikun Olam seriously, some take Dina Demalchusa Dina seriously and some take Yiddishkeit seriously!
It’s about time. For the last thirty years the IRS has had an explicit and implicit policy of going after working- and middle-class taxpayers and not investigating or auditing corporate and rich individual cases. This isn’t so much a change as a return to traditional enforcement.
You can always emigrate to Switzerland
Non-working foreigners resident in Switzerland may choose to pay a “lump-sum tax” instead of the normal income tax. The tax, which is generally much lower than the normal income tax, is nominally levied on the taxpayer’s living expenses, but in practice (which varies from canton to canton), it is common to use the quintuple of the rent paid by the taxpayer as a basis for the lump-sum taxation. This option contributes to Switzerland’s status as a tax haven, and has induced many wealthy individuals such as Michael Schumacher to live in Switzerland
Does this make me feel better or safer? NO! It does me not a ki hu zeh!
what about tax cheat (Timmy)Gaitner, Charley Raygal, Tom Delschel. and a bunch of other liberal tax cheats.
To: # 10. that’s exactly the point they are not shomrei torah umitzvos!!
So Shulman says take a more holistic approach….
This man must have learned that in the shul he attends, be more holy, Kedoshm tihyu!
Taxes were imposed so people could cheat them. Guess what, when there was no income tax in the USA, nobody cheated on their income taxes.
“fact check Says:
what about tax cheat (Timmy)Gaitner, Charley Raygal, Tom Delschel. and a bunch of other liberal tax cheats.”
Do you ask this because the overwhelming amount of tax cheats are probably republicans and you want people to look the other way?
Reply to #13 : Right, those who only care about Tikun Olam are usually Reform or secular. Those who seem to be more concerned with Dina Demalchusa Dina than other Ikrey Hadas are usually MO and then there are those who are concerned with all of Yiddishkeit.