IRS Whistleblowing on Abusive Offshore Schemes

Awards for Helping the IRS Catch Tax Cheats

The highest whistleblower award in US history was paid to an individual with original information of a massive offshore tax fraud. A former employee of the Swiss bank UBS received $104 million for unveiling the bank’s secret offshore tax avoidance scheme to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The bank had created secret offshore repositories where US taxpayers could earn – and shelter – billions without paying taxes. Taxes they owed as US citizens.

The Criminal Investigation unit of the IRS now vigorously pursues offshore tax avoidance schemes. The schemes typically involve layers of phony companies and trusts and dozens of linked, secret accounts. The IRS initiated an Abusive Tax Scheme Program to “follow the money” and recently issued Talking Points on the subject. Fraud on such a complicated level takes a long time to unravel, but the hunt may begin with a whistleblower’s information. The Talking Points suggest what to look for. And you might be rewarded.

Over the years, abusive offshore tax avoidance schemes evolved from single offshore accounts (the fabled “Swiss bank account”) into sophisticated strategies yoked to foreign financial secrecy laws. Below is the IRS laundry list of what piques their interest in offshore schemes. If you think you may be on to an abusive offshore tax avoidance scheme, and ready to come forward as a whistleblower, keep the IRS checklist in mind:

•  Foreign trusts and corporations
•  Foreign (offshore) partnerships, LLCs and LLPs
•  International Business Companies (IBCs)
• Offshore private annuities
• Private banking (U.S. and offshore)
• Personal investment companies
• Captive insurance companies
• Offshore bank accounts and credit cards
• Related-party loans

Contact Us

If you or a loved one has information regarding Internal Revenue Service (IRS) fraud or an abusive tax scheme and is looking to be a whistleblower, contact the Evans Law Firm elder attorneys at (415) 441-8669, or by email at info@evanslaw.com. Our attorneys have experience with complex whistleblower cases and complex tax, financial contract and large insurance company cases. We can help guide your case through a jury trial or toward an equitable settlement. We also handle cases involving physical and financial elder abuse, qui tam and whistleblower law, nursing home abuse, whole life insurance and universal life insurance, and indexed, variable, and fixed annuities.