The shoe is about to fall (yet again) on US taxpayers with Swiss accounts. As reported earlier this week by the Swiss paper Tages-Anzeiger,  the Swiss agency regulating financial matters recently held an undisclosed meeting with 11 Swiss banks that are under investigation by U.S. tax authorities’ with respect to long-standing offshore tax evasion investigation. According to the report, the banks are being told by the Swiss government to compile data of their U.S. clients for submission to the U.S. The banks included in the meeting reportedly were Credit Suisse and Julius Baer, and others such as Wegelin, Zürcher Kantonalbank, and Basler Kantonalbank.

The first round of data production is scheduled for late October, and the second after  mid-November. Supposedly,each transmission will contain details on several thousand clients, according to an October 7 report from Global Financial Strategy, a U.K.-based news service covering international financial policy.

It is not too late for US taxpayers with undisclosed accounts at these banks to make a voluntary disclosure and prevent criminal prosecution.  While the formal amnesty program, which provided certainty with respect to civil penalties, ended on September 9th, a voluntary disclosure to prevent criminal prosecution may be made, in most cases, until the information is provided by the Swiss banks to the US government.

Joseph Septimus is a tax and trusts and estate attorney with the law firm of Kostelanetz & Fink, LLP, and can be reached at (212) 808-8100 or[email protected]

(Joseph Septimus – YWN)