I’m back from a week at the beach. That’s the reason for the radio silence here. Now back to our regularly scheduled program and updates about the voluntary disclosure program for undisclosed foreign bank accounts. Here’s the latest change to procedure that we see: send the original Power of Attorney (Form 2848) (warning: PDF) to [...]

Jack Townsend has — as usual — a thoughtful analysis of the implications of the UBS settlement in which UBS will cough up a few thousand names of U.S. taxpayers.  (Exact details of the settlement haven’t been publicized yet.) It seems clear to me (and to Mr. Townsend) that the settlement depends on the Swiss [...]

According to Reuters, UBS has settled with the IRS.  Names will be named.  (How many?  Yours?  We shall see.)  Beans will be spilled.  Fingers will be pointed.  Bureaucratic chests will be puffed outward. Meanwhile, back on earth. . . . (I have been accused of being obtuse in the past.  By my wife.  Let me [...]

For your reading pleasure, here is Notice 2009-62.  If you have signature power over a foreign financial account but the money isn’t yours, then you have an extension of time to deal with the “Come to Jesus!” clean-up and file all of your paperwork with the IRS. If this applies to your particular situation, it [...]

The Swiss government is thinking about the proposed settlement in the UBS litigation.  (The settlement would have UBS disclose some names, but not the names of all of its 52,000-ish U.S. customers.  Convenient fig leaf for UBS and IRS.) Reuters reports on Swiss cabinet meetings on this point.  From the article, we can see a [...]