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IRS Chief Promises No Hiding Place For Tax Evaders,
by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington
Friday, March 06, 2009
US Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman told a Senate panel at a hearing on March 4 that the agency intends to deploy a number of weapons to counter international and offshore tax avoidance, including a beefed-up Qualified Intermediary program.
"It is of paramount importance to our system of voluntary compliance with
the tax law that citizens of this country have confidence that the system is
fair," Shulman stated in prepared testimony for delivery at the Senate
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing on offshore banks and US tax
compliance.
"We cannot allow an environment to develop where wealthy individuals can
go offshore and avoid paying taxes with impunity," Shulman stated, adding
that the IRS intends to "aggressively" pursue individuals and institutions
that facilitate unlawful tax avoidance.
Shulman informed the committee that he has already stepped up audits in this
area over the last five months, and that he intends to hire more investigators
with international expertise. However, he conceded that there is no "silver
bullet" compliance solution, and therefore the IRS and other government
agencies would deploy a number of strategies to encircle the non-compliant,
including through collaboration with national tax administrators at the Joint
International Tax Shelter Information Center (JITSIC), and, notably, through
an enhanced QI program.
The QI program was established in 2000 to encourage foreign banks to report
details of their US clients to the IRS for income tax purposes. Banks participating
in the program are offered the carrot of guaranteed access to the US market,
and get to withhold tax on client income at a lower rate. However, there has
been growing evidence that Americans determined to hide their assets from the
US tax man can easily do so by exploiting the system's flaws, in some cases
with the help of the banks.
Shulman told the panel that the IRS and Treasury Department are considering
a number of changes to the QI program, including expanding information reporting
requirements to include more sources of income for US persons with accounts
at QI banks, strengthening documentation rules and requiring withholding for
accounts with documentation that is considered insufficient.
Additionally, the IRS has already proposed changes that would shore up the
QI program in "substantial ways," Shulman stated. Under these proposals,
which were put out to consultation in October 2008, financial institutions that
are QIs must provide early notification of material failure of internal controls,
must improve evaluation of risk of circumvention of US taxation by US persons,
and must include audit oversight by a US auditor.
Shulman also requested at the hearing that Congress extend the time to assess
a tax liability with respect to offshore issues from three years to six years.
Concluding his testimony, Shulman assured the panel that the IRS intends to be at the forefront of the new charge against offshore.
"Because this is a global problem, it will require a closely coordinated
strategy among nations dedicated to ending this scourge that deprives our country
of precious resources and erodes confidence in the fairness of effectiveness
of our tax administration system," he stated.
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