On April 7, 2011, the DOJ announced that the government has expanded its focus to include undisclosed foreign bank accounts with HSBC. The government has reason to believe that many unnamed taxpayers have been investing with HSBC India through HSBC USA in order to evade taxes.

The IRS’s New Amnesty Program can help individuals with undisclosed accounts avoid incarceration but the program expires on August 31, 2011.  I believe this is the perfect time for taxpayers with undisclosed accounts to take advantage of the IRS’s New Amnesty Program for undisclosed offshore accounts.

Arthur Joel Eisenberg, an undisclosed offshore account holder with Swiss bank UBS, pled guilty in a federal court in Seattle, Washington. Eisenberg was charged of willfully filing a false tax return as well as failing to disclose that he had a financial interest in an offshore account. He paid a $2.1 million penalty for failing to file a FBAR; in addition to incarceration and future probation.

Four Credit Suisse International Bankers have recently been indicted on charges of illegal cross-border banking. The bankers have been assisting U.S. taxpayers to evade taxes through undisclosed offshore accounts. These questionable practices have been perpetuated by many Swiss banks since the 1950s. Several Swiss banks, as well as other international banks around the globe, have been suspected of soliciting U.S. taxpayers and providing them with illegal tax advice resulting in a failure to adhere to reporting requirements.

On February 8, 2011, the IRS launched an amnesty initiative for U.S. taxpayers with undisclosed offshore accounts. The 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative (OVDI) is based on the previous disclosure program that ran through October of 2009.