As you may know, the Internal Revenue Service has a program called the “Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program” or OVDP for short. Being one of San Francisco’s top International tax CPA firms, we have many clients with exposure to regulatory and disclosure requirements for their foreign assets. Unfortunately, many people are not aware of the requirements, or choose to ignore them until it is too late. The IRS is stepping up compliance efforts, but fortunately is offering some amnesty opportunities if you have foreign accounts and are able to comply prior to the deadlines (or prior to an audit).
2014 OVDP Amnesty Details and Deadline
You can read about the 2014 OVDP program and amnesty details, here. Among the interesting paragraphs
are:
Because the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the IRS and Department of Justice offshore enforcement efforts continue to raise the risk of detection of tax
payers with undisclosed foreign accounts and assets for the foreseeable future, it has been determined that 2012 OVDP should be modified and made available to taxpayers who wish to voluntarily disclose their offshore accounts and assets to avoid prosecution and limit their exposure to civil penalties but have
not yet done so. Unlike the 2009 OVDP and the 2011 OVDI, the 2014 OVDP has no set deadline for taxpayers to apply. However, the terms of this program could change at any time. For example, the IRS may increase penalties or limit eligibility in the program for all or some taxpayers or defined classes of taxpayers – or decide to end the program entirely at any time.
What this means is that if you are subject to the OVDP, or think you may be subject ot the OVDP, the time to act is now. On August 4, 2014, they are tightening the penalties to a 50% levy against assets; so there is a huge rush to comply prior to that August 4, 2014, OVDP compliance deadline. Call us at 415-742-4249 or send us an email for a free 15 minute phone consultation on your OVDP compliance situation.
