Offshore Tax Evasion: IRS Has Collected Billions of Dollars, but May be Missing Continued Evasion
Highlights
What GAO Found
As of December 2012, the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) four offshore programs have resulted in more than 39,000 disclosures by taxpayers and over $5.5 billion in revenues. The offshore programs attract taxpayers by offering a reduced risk of criminal prosecution and lower penalties than if the unreported income was discovered by one of IRS's other enforcement programs. For the 2009 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP), nearly all program participants received the standard offshore penalty--20 percent of the highest aggregate value of the accounts--meaning the account value was greater than $75,000 and taxpayers used the accounts (e.g., made deposits or withdrawals) during the period under review. The median account balance of the more than 10,000 cases closed so far from the 2009 OVDP was $570,000. Participant cases with offshore penalties greater than $1 million represented about 6 percent of all 2009 OVDP cases, but accounted for almost half of all offshore penalties. Taxpayers from these cases disclosed a variety of reasons for having offshore accounts, and more than half of them had accounts at Swiss bank UBS.
Using 2009 OVDP data, IRS identified bank names and account locations that helped it pursue additional noncompliance. Based on a review of cases, GAO found examples of immigrants who stated in their 2009 OVDP applications that they were unaware of their offshore reporting requirements. IRS officials from the Offshore Compliance Initiative office said they have not targeted outreach efforts to new immigrants. Using information from the 2009 OVDP, such as the characteristics of taxpayers who were not aware of their reporting requirements, to increase education and outreach to those populations could promote voluntary compliance.
IRS has detected some taxpayers with previously undisclosed offshore accounts attempting to circumvent paying the taxes, interest, and penalties that would otherwise be owed, but based on GAO reviews of IRS data, IRS may be missing attempts by other taxpayers attempting to do so. GAO analyzed amended returns filed for tax year 2003 through tax year 2008, matched them to other information available to IRS about taxpayers' possible offshore activities, and found many more potential quiet disclosures than IRS detected. Moreover, IRS has not researched whether sharp increases in taxpayers reporting offshore accounts for the first time is due to efforts to circumvent monies owed, thereby missing opportunities to help ensure compliance. From tax year 2007 through tax year 2010, IRS estimates that the number of taxpayers reporting foreign accounts nearly doubled to 516,000. Taxpayer attempts to circumvent taxes, interest, and penalties by not participating in an offshore program, but instead simply amending past returns or reporting on current returns previously unreported offshore accounts, result in lost revenues and undermine the programs' effectiveness.
Why GAO Did This Study
Tax evasion by individuals with unreported offshore financial accounts was estimated by one IRS commissioner to be several tens of billions of dollars, but no precise figure exists. IRS has operated four offshore programs since 2003 that offered incentives for taxpayers to disclose their offshore accounts and pay delinquent taxes, interest, and penalties. GAO was asked to review IRS’s second offshore program, the 2009 OVDP. This report (1) describes the nature of the noncompliance of 2009 OVDP participants, (2) determines the extent IRS used the 2009 OVDP to prevent noncompliance, and (3) assesses IRS’s efforts to detect taxpayers trying to circumvent taxes, interests, and penalties that would otherwise be owed. To address these objectives, GAO analyzed tax return data for all 2009 OVDP participants and exam files for a random sample of cases with penalties over $1 million; interviewed IRS Offshore officials; and developed and implemented a methodology to detect taxpayers circumventing monies owed.
Recommendations
Among other things, GAO recommends that IRS (1) use offshore data to identify and educate taxpayers who might not be aware of their reporting requirements; (2) explore options for employing a methodology to more effectively detect and pursue quiet disclosures and implement the best option; and (3) analyze first-time offshore account reporting trends to identify possible attempts to circumvent monies owed and take action to help ensure compliance. IRS agreed with all of GAO's recommendations.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Internal Revenue Service | The Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue should use data gained from offshore programs to identify and educate populations of taxpayers that might not be aware of their tax obligations related to offshore income and Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) filing requirements. |
In response to our recommendation, in the spring of 2014, IRS undertook multiple outreach efforts to educate taxpayers--who are likely to have foreign financial accounts--about their filing requirements. For example, IRS sent articles on reporting requirements to first-generation U.S. citizen professional groups whose members may be more inclined to having foreign accounts. Such outreach efforts could help promote voluntary compliance, draw additional taxpayers into the offshore disclosure programs, and reduce the need for enforcement actions. Additional program participants could then provide yet more information to help identify additional groups that would benefit from education and outreach.
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| Internal Revenue Service | The Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue should obtain information that can help IRS test offshore program promotion strategies and identify new ones by adding a question to current and future programs to determine how participants found out about the program. |
In response to our recomendation, in June 2014, IRS updated its program intake letter to include a question asking participants how they learned about the program. Obtaining information on how taxpayers found out about IRS's offshore voluntary disclosure programs can help IRS better identify populations that might benefit from additional taxpayer education and outreach. Such information could also help IRS evaluate the success of its current outreach efforts.
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| Internal Revenue Service | The Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue should explore options for employing a methodology for identifying and pursuing potential quiet disclosures to provide more assurance that actual quiet disclosures are not being missed and then implement the best option. |
As of March 2016 IRS has completed its research to determine and implement the best option for identifying and pursuing potential quiet disclosures. Systemic mechanisms have been implemented which result in the forwarding of questionable and amended returns with international features to the Austin center. These cases are risk assessed utilizing a Quiet Disclosure Quantitative Analytical Framework developed in Austin. More than 350 cases have been identified by the new IRS methodology. As of December 31, 2015, IRS has completed examinations of 144 taxpayers, resulting in approximately $6,482,000 in additional tax assessed.
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| Internal Revenue Service | The Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue should conduct an analysis designed to measure the extent that taxpayers are reporting existing foreign accounts on the Form 1040, Schedule B or on FBARs for the first time and circumventing some of the taxes, interest, and penalties that would otherwise be owed, and take appropriate action based on the analysis. |
IRS has drafted a "compliance roadmap" related to FATCA and form 8939. IRM 3.11.6.3.5.4 has been implemented to identify quiet disclosures as they are filed. As of December 31, 2015 IRS has completed 9 examinations based on returns selected with this new method, and they resulted in approximately $140,543 in additional tax assessments. The cross referencing of FBARs and Schedule B was incorporated into the Form 8938 analysis and exam selection. The schedule B, in particular, was incorporated as a result of the GAO recommendation.
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