Last week, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reached out to the world's biggest accounting firms asking them to help in their quest to crack down on tax evasion. This move comes just days after a US court ruled the IRS could track down taxpayers suspected of evading US taxes by using Swiss bank accounts. The ruling demanded that the banks hand over records identifying American taxpayers that have foreign accounts.
Barry Shott, a deputy IRS commissioner, sent an e-mail to the six largest account firms claiming, “we are concerned generally by what we are seeing and hearing about the way some foreign banks are behaving with relation to the payment of US taxes by their customers.”
The US Justice Department estimates that up to 20,000 taxpayers have avoided paying nearly $300 million in taxes by abusing laws on Swiss bank accounts. “People should take notice that the secrecy surrounding these accounts is rapidly fading,” claimed IRS commissioner Doug Shulman.