Businessman Failed to Report Income

A New Hampshire man pleaded guilty yesterday in the U.S. District Court for failing to report approximately $170,000 in income earned from offshore bank accounts from 2006-2009. He faces three years in prison, a criminal fine of $250,000 and must pay 50 percent civil penalty to the IRS based on the high balance account. This taxpayer had offshore accounts in tax havens such as Switzerland, Israel, and the UK. This is a prime example of a taxpayer that should have timely entered into one of the many Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiatives in play since 2009. It is also a benchmark example for behavior that the Department of Justice Tax Division and IRS deem as “willful.”