US ramps up tax purge beyond UBS
The US government is clamping down on offshore tax evasion far beyond UBS
Lawyers and other experts say that US prosecutors are taking advantage of the
momentum of the US Government’s UBS probe to strengthen its enforcement of US
tax compliance globally.
Ian Comisky, a partner who specialises in tax litigation at Blank Rome, says
the US government’s action against UBS is highly unusual, the Financial
Times reports. ‘The government is being aggressive and taking a much
tougher stance in general on the stashing of money offshore,’ Comisky said.
But the potential number of names that could be revealed would frighten most
Swiss bankers and UBS insiders have confirmed the group has about 20,000 US
offshore clients, with about $20bn in assets.
Although some clients will have declared their assets to the US authorities,
in spite of benefiting from legal provisions which do not require them to do so,
the US probe into UBS has sparked alarm among US citizens concerned they may end
up on a list of names.
For further reading:
Swiss go to Washington for tax evasion talks
Read
the Financial Times story