Reports are that the IRS is teaming with UK and Australian tax authorities to chase down taxes on income in offshore accounts. Michael Cohn, IRS, UK and Australian Tax Authorities Uncover Information on Offshore Tax Evaders and Advisors (Accounting Today 5/9/13), here. Exceprts are:
The Internal Revenue Service is teaming up with tax authorities in the United Kingdom and Australia to battle offshore tax havens after uncovering new information on specific taxpayers and advisors.
The tax administrations from the U.S., Australia and the U.K. announced a plan Thursday to share tax information involving trusts and companies that hold assets on behalf of residents in jurisdictions throughout the world. The IRS said the three nations have each acquired a substantial amount of data revealing extensive use of such entities organized in a number of jurisdictions including Singapore, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and the Cook Islands.
The data they have acquired purportedly contains both the identities of the individual owners of these entities, along with the advisors who assisted in establishing the entity structure.
The IRS said it has been working together with the Australian Tax Office and the U.K.’s HM Revenue & Customs to analyze the data they have acquired and have already uncovered information that may be relevant to the tax administrations of other jurisdictions. The IRS said they have also developed a plan for sharing the data, along with their preliminary analysis, if requested by those other tax administrations.I did not realize this earlier, but the key new information in the article is pretty much taken from IR-2013-48, May 9, 2013, titled "IRS, Australia and Unite Kingdom Engaged in Cooperative Effort to Combat Offshore Tax Evasion," here.
