
Since July 1, eleven more Swiss banks have entered deferred prosecution agreements with the U.S. government. The subject is tax evasion involving American account holders. Today, banks everywhere want to know if you are compliant with the IRS. Under FATCA, the entire world is lending the IRS a hand. Meanwhile, the IRS has updated its list of the foreign banks where offshore accounts trigger a 50% (rather than 27.5%) penalty based on the highest account balances in the IRS’s long-running Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP).