Last week a Swiss Federal Administrative Court rejected a U.S. government request for banking data on U.S. clients of Swiss bank Julius Baer. This ruling related to a group request for U.S. taxpayers with undisclosed accounts filed on a no-name basis. While great news to U.S. tax evaders and the protectors of Swiss Bank secrecy laws, it is a major upset for the U.S. Department of Justice in their efforts to make the Swiss government follow through on their previous deal to make their banks turn over their U.S. customer lists. That means the door is still open for whistleblowers to add value by helping the authorities identify taxpayers with undisclosed accounts. We have been involved in numerous matters where taxpayers have failed to disclose not only undisclosed accounts, but large amounts of foreign source income that is then funneled to those accounts. Typically the undisclosed foreign source income represents a much larger tax issue than the existence of the undisclosed account, and we encourage whistleblowers with such information to act now while the door is still open for awards.
Recent Comments