US IRS offshore amnesty carrot-and-stick campaign pays off big time
All in all 14,700 rich US citizens and owners of accounts set up illegally in off-shore banking destinations, came forward to confess their sins and receive lenient treatment from the authorities, netting the US government billions of dollars. It all started with the Obama administration forcing a crackdown on tax cheaters and winning a crucial case against UBS in February this year, forcing the bank to disclose the identities and accounts of 4,450 US clients with assets larger than 1 million Swiss francs (US$986,000). But not only the Swiss banking system clients came out; according to the Internal Revenue Service, the accounts were held in more than 70 countries. Read more: Reuters
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