California Asset Protection Attorney, Sebastian Gibson
Offshore Asset Protection - Voluntary Disclosures of Offshore Accounts Advice by California Offshore Asset Protection Lawyers
If you’ve been searching for California asset protection lawyers or offshore asset protection attorneys in California and haven’t found the asset protection attorney in which you can be confident when retaining a lawyer for your asset protection, voluntary disclosure, offshore trust protection and family limited partnership matters in California, Sebastian Gibson is the asset protection attorney you’ve been looking for.
California Asset Protection Lawyer
With over thirty years of experience handling international matters, with law degrees in both California and in Great Britain, and years of international experience in London as well as decades of experience in California, California asset protection lawyer Sebastian Gibson brings a wealth of experience to the table and was chosen one of the 2011 Top Lawyers by Palm Springs Life Magazine.
In providing offshore asset protection there is nothing more heartbreaking by California offshore asset protection lawyers than advising some clients of the penalties they are facing in making voluntary disclosures of offshore accounts. The risk of criminal prosecution by clients who can’t face up to making voluntary disclosures is equally unsettling.
As bad as the situation has been for taxpayers watching news headlines with intrepidation about foreign accounts and foreign income they have long failed to report to the IRS, the situation is only going to get worse. With each new revelation or prosecution of a foreign bank and with each new tax treaty, each hiring of additional hundreds of IRS agents, and each bank or whistleblower disclosure, such taxpayers lose a little more sleep.
So how did we get from the days when taxpayers thought they were safe in sending their assets or investing their money in foreign offshore bank accounts or other entities to where we are now with panicked citizens streaming into law offices emotional wrecks over bank accounts that could not only be wiped out by IRS penalties, but where the taxpayers could wind up owing the IRS millions and be facing criminal prosecution?
The whole process really only began to unravel in the early 2000s. Since then, however, it has snowballed. Having suspected for some time that credit and debit cards were being used to provide easy, untraceable access to secret offshore accounts in tax haven countries, the IRS utilized one of their most useful tools in their arsenal, the "John Doe" summons to obtain information and issued the summonses to major credit card companies for account information in approximately thirty different countries for the tax years 1998 to 2001.
At the same time, the IRS served the summonses to airlines, hotels, rental car companies and internet providers for information on transactions using such credit and debit cards. It was estimated that up to two million U.S. customers had credit or debit cards issued by banks in offshore countries. Millions of records were turned over to the IRS by the credit card companies alone and as a result it was speculated that thousands of credit card users were given civil examinations by the IRS and dozens of cases referred for criminal investigation.
To update its long standing voluntary disclosure program, the IRS implemented an "Offshore Voluntary Compliance Initiative" in 2003 to give individuals with previously undisclosed offshore accounts an opportunity to voluntarily step forward and clear up their tax liabilities with the IRS.
To the IRS, voluntary disclosure was a factor in determinations by the Department of Justice as to whether or not to prosecute a taxpayer. While taxpayers voluntarily disclosing their sins to the IRS might be excused of their tax crimes, those who were found by the IRS as a result of their own investigations might find themselves convicted of tax fraud.
At the time of the credit/debit card initiative by the IRS and the resulting publicity, the IRS advised that while a voluntary disclosure would not automatically guaranty a taxpayer immunity from criminal prosecution for tax fraud, a completely honest and forthcoming voluntary disclosure would normally result in the IRS not recommending criminal prosecution to the Department of Justice. Even then, there were no guarantees.
From 1946 to 1952, the Treasury Department had fostered a policy of not recommending criminal prosecution of taxpayers who fully and completely disclosed their tax fraud to the IRS before any civil or criminal investigation had begun. In 1952, however, when congressional hearings found evidence of corruption and failures in the administration of Internal Revenue rules, the Treasury Department abandoned it’s former more generous policy of dealing with tax cheats.
Over the years, the voluntary disclosure policy again began to have legs and in the early 2000s, it was considered along with other factors in whether or not to recommend criminal prosecution. As a matter of practicality, the IRS viewed taxpayers who voluntarily disclosed their past tax crimes as less important and less likely a prosecution target than those tax cheats they found as a result of their own investigations.
The 2003 Voluntary Compliance initiative ended April 15, 2003, but was not as great a success as the IRS had hoped for. As part of that initiative, the IRS agreed to waive the 75% civil fraud penalty, the 75% penalties for failure to file tax returns, and penalties for failing to comply with foreign transactions reporting requirements and for failing to file FBARs, Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts.
Even with such forgiveness, taxpayers still were required to pay all the tax they owed plus interest, a 20% accuracy related penalty, a 25% delinquency penalty or both, in return for a taxpayer avoiding the civil fraud penalties of 75% and the likely avoidance of criminal prosecution. The initiative also applied its penalties only to tax years ending after 1998 unless the IRS found "substantial tax avoidance" had occurred in earlier years and the statute of limitations was still open. Even then, the initiative allowed a taxpayer to file amended returns for the years prior to 1999.
As a result of the penalties and the belief of taxpayers with offshore accounts that they could still avoid detection, the number of taxpayers who made voluntary disclosures under the Voluntary Compliance initiative in 2003 was not that large. The IRS collected only $170 million from about 1,300 taxpayers. Comparing this figure to the more than 50,000 taxpayers with accounts at Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS alone, in 2003, the number of taxpayers stepping forward to clear up their situations was minuscule.
In compliance with IRS requirements, we must advise you that any U.S. federal tax advice or voluntary disclosure advice contained in this informational article is not intended by our California offshore asset protection lawyers to be used nor is it published in order for it to be used and you may not use it for the purpose of avoiding penalties or fines under the Internal Revenue Code. It is not intended to be used nor is it being published in order to promote, market or recommend any specific transaction, tax-related matter or estate planning tax scheme to any party.
California Asset Protection Attorney, Sebastian Gibson
Sought out to be a writer for California’s two largest and most prestigious legal newspapers, California asset protection attorney Sebastian Gibson’s articles have been published in the Los Angeles Daily Journal and the San Francisco Daily Journal. Today thousands and thousands of people visit this website and his blogs monthly for useful advice and thousands more follow him on Twitter for his humor.
One of the best asset protection attorneys for people in California to follow for his humor and wit, one of the funniest California asset protection lawyers as well as one of the top humorous California asset protection attorneys people follow on Twitter, California asset protection attorney Sebastian Gibson has been called "brilliant," "hilariously funny" and a "legend."
It matters more than you think who you call for your asset protection and other legal matters. When it matters most, call California asset protection lawyer Sebastian Gibson. When it’s time to hire a California asset protection attorney, hire a legend.
