US tax dodgers scramble to come clean amid crackdown

WASHINGTON: A deal with Switzerland settling US demands for the names of suspected tax dodgers from a Swiss bank has a lot of wealthy Americans with offshore accounts nervously running to their tax advisers -- and the Internal Revenue Service.

"They are very frightened," said Richard Boggs, chief executive of Nationwide Tax Relief, a Los-Angeles-based tax firm that specialises in clients with tax debts exceeding USD 100,000. "You have the super rich who are not used to being pushed around and they are finding themselves in unfamiliar territory."

The US and Swiss governments announced a court settlement last week in efforts by the IRS to force Zurich-based UBS AG to turn over the names of some 52,000 Americans believed to be hiding nearly $15 billion in assets in secret accounts.

Justice Department and UBS lawyers told a federal judge in Miami in a brief conference call Wednesday they had initiated a final deal. But they did not disclose any details, such as how many of the 52,000 names sought by the IRS will be revealed.



Even before the settlement, the high-profile case -- coupled with other US efforts to go after Americans hiding undeclared assets -- has scared hundreds of tax dodgers to turn themselves in. Boggs said his firm has been taking on 100 new cases a month, a big increase over previous years.