The IRS has decided to give offshore tax scofflaws almost an extra month to rethink their cheater-cheater pumpkin-eater ways, extending the deadline to October 15th from September 23rd. According to the Service, this will be the absolute, final, drop dead chance for offshore account holders to come forward.
Apparently the IRS means biz-nass as 3,000 account holders have already come forward to declare their offshore income. This is compared to less than the 100 taxpayers that came forward all of last year.
You could safely assume that the public flogging of UBS in front of the entire world helped get the IRS’s point across. So now the extension of the deadline seems to be a friendly reminder that you have ONE LAST CHANCE to play ball.
Plus, the Service must have come to their senses and realized that a tax deadline on the 23rd really doesn’t seem to make a damn bit of sense.
IRS extends tax amnesty deadline to October 15 [Reuters via Tax Prof Blog]
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Why Snoop Dogg’s Latest Tax Problem Isn’t a Surprise
Seriously. Does anyone think that Snoop Dogg forgetting about his taxes is that much of a stretch? He’s got to have the money; the Starsky & Hutch royalties alone should be able to settle the $598-odd thousand lien that the IRS slapped on him.
So the only plausible explanation is that he forget to pay the taxes. He’s got the regular day-to-day celebrity issue that Nicolas Cage or Eve may have but come on people. His daily ritual consists of choosing between White Widow, Hollands Hope or Northern Lights (or whatever strain he wants, really); has it occurred to anyone that it may have slipped his mind?
D-O-Double G got hit with a lien last year too so isn’t this the kind of tax compliance we’ve come to expect anyway? It’s basically like you scrounging around for your keys every morning. It’s the routine.
Yes, we suppose that he could hire a CPA to take care of his business affairs but we’re guessing that may have escaped the mental to-do list too. NBD, really. See you next year Snoop.
IRS Commish: Gird Your Loins, Offshore Bank Havens
Yesterday we mentioned that the IRS’s new Global High Wealth Industry Group was putting the screws to the rich via “Audits from Hell.” Today, the Service announced that they were withdrawing the federal court summons against UBS since the Swiss Bank provide 4,000 more names of American clients who had parked funds offshore.
With the announcement, IRS Commish Doug Shulman put those 4k lucky ducks on notice that they should prepare for their personal audit inferno:
The IRS on Tuesday withdrew its Miami federal court summons seeking identities of suspected U.S. tax dodgers at UBS after receiving more than 4,000 names as required under an August 2009 agreement that also included the Swiss government. Each of those people expect what Shulman called a “full-blown audit” and many are likely to be charged criminally.
But that’s not all! Clearly, not satisfied with the example made of UBS, the Commish made a promise to everyone that the Service’s offshore bank raids were just getting started.
This is the close of what I call the first chapter,” IRS chief Doug Shulman told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “We are actively pursuing a number of other banks and promoters and advisers.”
Shulman declined to get into specifics about ongoing offshore tax investigations, but said: “It’s not just about Switzerland, this is about multiple countries and multiple institutions.”