IRS Eases Rules For Participation In Taxpayer Amnesty Program

Taxpayers with undisclosed offshore financial assets or income may be interested to learn of changes to the IRS's Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program ("OVDP") - an initiative designed to encourage people to bring offshore assets into the U.S. tax system. Since its inception in 2009, more than 45,000 OVDP participants have paid about $6.5 billion in taxes, interest and penalties. The recent changes in the OVDP expand eligibility for the streamlined filing compliance procedures instituted in 2012 for certain U.S. taxpayers whose failure to disclose their offshore assets was non-willful - and also make other important modifications.

What has changed?

The original streamlined compliance procedures announced in 2012 were available only to non-filers who were non-residents of the U.S. Submissions by these taxpayers were subject to different degrees of review based on the amounts of tax due and the taxpayers' responses to a "risk" questionnaire. Eligibility for the