IRS cracks open 4,450 Swiss bank accounts

IRS cracks open 4,450 Swiss bank accounts

Deal with Swiss banking giant UBS gives access to secret accounts of Americans evading tax authorities.
By David Francis | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor


Berlin - Swiss banking giant UBS said Wednesday it had agreed to give to American authorities the names of up to 4,450 US account holders who the Internal Revenue Service suspects of using Switzerland's vaunted banking secrecy rules to avoid paying billions of dollars in US taxes.

The announcement ends an eight-month legal battle that strained Swiss-US diplomatic ties, saw UBS agree to pay $780 million in fines, and had Swiss bankers worrying that the secrecy laws that made Zurich synonymous with wealth were under siege.

IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman declared "the world of international taxes has drastically changed" in a conference call with reporters. In a Bloomberg TV interview, Mr. Shulman said this case shows that the IRS can and will expand its global reach to catch American tax evaders.

"We're going to have our targets set on all categories of folks," Shulman said.

He also said the US will be given access to 5,000 Swiss accounts which at one point had $18 billion in assets.

more...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0819/p06s05-woeu.html

Oh yeah. That is justice.

... going after the little fish... the big ones are snorkeling with the Nazi's progeny in Argentina.

You know who I am talking about.

But of course, I'm sure they'll whine about it to no end.

Mary had a little bank;
She fleeced it white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went,
The feds were sure to go.

She hid the money overseas
(Which was against the rule),
Because she might have been a crook,
But Mary was no fool.



Wish I could take credit for it, but it's from Dr. Boli.

http://drboli.wordpress.com/

in the millions. One wonders how many names of elected officials (public servants) are on that list.

edited to add: both parties - dems and repubs.

Cracky cracky, dam is bursting...

"There are a lot of normal Americans with investment and checking accounts in Switzerland".

Define "normal".

They'd have perfectly normal reasons for having a Swiss bank account.