The Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Voluntary Disclosure Practice affords U.S. taxpayers the opportunity to avoid substantial liability in the event that they have failed to timely disclose their offshore accounts—as required by federal law. The Voluntary Disclosure Practice is not available to all taxpayers in all circumstances, and it does not afford the ability to completely avoid liability in most cases, but it can help taxpayers avoid tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in IRS penalties in many circumstances.

On January 23, 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced the first major crackdown conducted by the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement. In doing so, it sent a stern warning to U.S. taxpayers who have offshore accounts, and it signaled that taxpayers who fail to comply with the IRS voluntary disclosure requirements may be at risk in similar coordinated international law enforcement efforts in the coming years.

U.S. taxpayers holding previously undisclosed offshore accounts have had to deal with a recent change in the tax laws. The Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) used to be the IRS program allowing offshore account holders to report previously undisclosed accounts, while reducing tax penalties and avoiding criminal exposure. When the IRS ended OVDP in September 2018, the new voluntary disclosure program now applied to these same taxpayers holding offshore accounts.

For several years, Boston residents who failed to report their foreign financial assets to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) were able to mitigate the consequences of their omission through the IRS’s Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP). However, the OVDP ended on September 28, 2018. While taxpayers still have options for voluntarily disclosing their offshore holdings, there are some important limitations. As a result, consulting one of the Boston IRS voluntary disclosure lawyers at Thorn Law Group is critical to avoiding substantial penalties.