Congress Weighs In On Offshore Enforcement

March 24, 2014

A recent report by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) criticized both the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service for their purported "lax enforcement" of the use of offshore bank accounts to evade U.S. tax laws. The report and subsequent hearings, however, ignore significant progress in the pursuit of offshore tax evasion through both the IRS's Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Programs and the DOJ's Program for Non-Prosecution Agreements or Non-Target Letters for Swiss Banks. This article discusses how Congress could contribute to the appropriate enforcement of the tax laws by fully funding both the DOJ and the IRS.

Attorneys

Jeremy H. Temkin