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The I.R.S. and the Department of Justice (“D.O.J.”) continued their tenacious efforts against offshore tax evasion. Three major events took place in 2013: (i) a shift in the methodology to detect quiet disclosures; (ii) the bank voluntary disclosure program (“B.V.D.P.”) announced by the United States and Switzerland on August 29, 2013, and (iii) certain notable convictions, plea deals, and civil penalties.

We expect the I.R.S. and D.O.J.’s unwavering focus on offshore tax evasion to continue in 2014 as F.A.T.C.A begins to be implemented. Some practitioners fear that when F.A.T.C.A. information reporting begins, the O.V.D.P. may end, as the I.R.S. will have received information automatically on foreign accounts. If a U.S. taxpayer remains uncertain about declaring foreign financial accounts, now is the time to take remedial action. There is no Plan B, if time runs out.

QUIET DISCLOSURES

While the I.R.S. officially has discouraged quiet disclosures, a Government Accountability Office (“G.A.O”) report, released on April 26, 2013, identified shortcomings in the I.R.S.’s ability to detect quiet disclosures. According to the G.A.O. report:

[The] G.A.O. analyzed amended returns filed for tax year 2003 through tax year 2008, matched them to other information available to IRS about taxpayers' possible offshore activities, and found many more potential quiet disclosures than IRS detected. Moreover, IRS has not researched whether sharp increases in taxpayers reporting offshore accounts for the first time is due to efforts to circumvent monies owed, thereby missing opportunities to help ensure compliance . . . Taxpayer attempts to circumvent taxes, interest, and penalties by not participating in an offshore program, but instead simply amending past returns or reporting on current returns previously unreported offshore accounts, result in lost revenues and undermine the programs' effectiveness.