People with offshore accounts now have the option to come clean. Wealthy Americans usually try to avoid paying taxes on their riches by keeping their money in offshore accounts. U.S. authorities are offering reduced penalties if they come clean. They would now face a 25% penalty instead of the 50% they would have to pay if they got caught.
I think this is a good method to find some of these hidden accounts. Granted, not all are going to come clean, but they will get a good number of them. This will make the IRS's job a little easier. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me why someone would come forward though, offering to lower the fines of having an offshore account when the whole purpose of having the account is to avoid paying money. They must be cracking down on their investigations recently.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110208/bs_nm/us_usa_taxes_amnesty
I agree with you on this one, Mary. The taxes that they would have to pay probably wouldn't measure up to that 25% in the first year. Plus, no one wants a penalty like that on their record. They would also have to pay taxes on the other 75% of their money for years to come. If they're already evading taxes now, there's not much stopping them from thinking they'll still be able to get out of them.
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