Come clean Avoid civil fraud charges if you've been mixed up in offshore transactions
By Marshall Loeb, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 12:05 AM ET March 31, 2003
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) --The IRS has targeted offshore transactions as one the top 12 scams to look for. Federal agencies and the IRS are prosecuting promoters and their clients for tax evasion schemes, including when people use offshore credit cards, trusts or other methods to hide taxable income.
In recent years, more and more people have been caught up in ways to hide foreign income and assets.
These methods often involve flow-through entities like foreign trusts, corporations, partnerships, as well as offshore bank accounts and credit cards. Innocent taxpayers who have been lured into these scams by con artists have one last chance to avoid civil fraud charges. Until April 15, those who want to come clean can call the Offshore Voluntary Compliance Initiative at 215-516-3537. Taxpayers involved in such schemes who don't come forward now may be subject to taxes, interest, penalties and possible criminal prosecution. For more information on this and other areas the IRS is cracking down on, consult "IRS Updates the 'Dirty Dozen' for 2003: Agency Warns of 12 Common Scams" in The Newsroom at irs.gov.
Marshall Loeb, former editor of Fortune, Money, and The Columbia Journalism Review, writes "Your Dollars" exclusively for CBS.MarketWatch.com. |
