September 2009 News Update

IRS Builds New International Tax Group
For anyone who wondered if the Internal Revenue Service was done with offshore accounts now that it received its UBS AG (UBS) settlement, there is this:

The agency has started putting together a new group to focus on international tax issues, including offshore bank accounts used to evade taxes.


An IRS unit that deals with large corporations and large partnerships has posted job openings for several positions in a new group that will "focus on examinations involving the complicated business arrangements and entities controlled by the high-wealth taxpayer segment," according to IRS spokesman Frank Keith. Naturally, the move to create the new group has caught the attention of tax lawyers working on the UBS case.


The IRS looks to be assembling a more sophisticated group of examiners for the group. However, while an earlier press report indicated the group was formed to deal with the UBS tax evasion case, which has drawn hundreds of people into an IRS voluntary disclosure program, it won't deal strictly with UBS. It points to the fact that the IRS windfall from the UBS case has prompted it to comb elsewhere for similar circumstances.


It follows on a pledge by IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman to beef up international tax compliance, partly through a crackdown on people who use offshore accounts to evade taxes. President Obama's 2010 budget earmarked extra IRS funds for this purpose. Scott D. Michel, an attorney in Washington, said it appears that the IRS is working hard to devote substantial audit and enforcement resources to deal with the aftermath of the UBS settlement.