Excerpt
A United States tax amnesty, part of a campaign to crack down on perceived tax havens such as Switzerland, has netted 7,500 repentant tax dodgers.
An investigation into UBS, that found that the Swiss bank had helped US citizens evade tax, helped fuel a crusade to weed out cheats who were using offshore accounts to hide undeclared assets.
The amnesty, that ended on October 15, offered reduced punishments for those who voluntarily declared their guilt. Culprits will pay a fine between five and 20 per cent of their stashed assets as opposed to a 50 per cent levy and a possible prison sentence faced by those who did not come forward.
The IRS even extended the amnesty for a month to help tax lawyers cope with a deluge of worried clients who wanted to come forward.
It is not yet clear how many of the 7,500 had accounts in Switzerland. But Doug Shulman, commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), said the disclosures would be scoured to identify which institutions had helped the tax evaders.
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