From the monthly archives:

February 2010

Hey IRS, if you want to know how to do an amnesty

by Phil Hodgen, Hodgen Law Group PC on February 25, 2010

. . . look at Italy.
Quiet, simple, no heavy penalties, nothing required from the taxpayer which would rat out someone else. Ninety! Five! Billion! Euros! declared, and another € 30 billion expected because they extended the deadline from 15 December 2009 to April 30, 2010.
Dear IRS,
Your long-term profit-maximizing strategy is to [...]

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Swiss Parliament will attempt to approve UBS settlement

by Phil Hodgen, Hodgen Law Group PC on February 25, 2010

The fate of approximately 4,200 U.S. customers of UBS is hanging on what happens next in Swiss Parliament.
Recap
Here’s where things are right now:

UBS and the U.S. government signed a settlement agreement in August, 2009 in which UBS agreed to turn over the names of 4,450 U.S. customers of the bank.

In February, 2010 a Swiss court [...]

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Latest posts on the main blog

by Phil Hodgen, Hodgen Law Group PC on February 17, 2010

For those of you who aren’t checking my main blog regularly:

The Geithner effect and offshore bank account enforcement (my point there is that the IRS is making people fear them yet people are willing to cheat more — “keep doing what you’re doing and you’ll keep getting what you’re getting” is the moral of THAT [...]

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Tell your offshore bank account story anonymously on our forums

by Phil Hodgen, Hodgen Law Group PC on February 10, 2010

There are a lot of you out there who have a story to tell about the offshore bank account amnesty. Public perception and IRS PR is at odds with the experiences of ordinary people like you. Only one side of the story is being told.
The amnesty penalties are disproportionate to the tax due. [...]

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The amnesty process is broken but can be fixed

by Phil Hodgen, Hodgen Law Group PC on February 5, 2010

Those of you reading this know that the Voluntary Disclosure Program for people with undisclosed foreign bank accounts is a broken and malignant process. I’ve posted a lengthy post arguing the Voluntary Disclosure Program is off the rails, with a suggestion for how the IRS might make lemonade from its lemons.
As always, comments welcome, [...]

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Please go to main blog for more info

by Phil Hodgen, Hodgen Law Group PC on February 2, 2010

I’ve been posting a lot of information over at my main blog, http://hodgen.com/phils-blog. I’m pulling everything together in one main site rather than spreading myself all over the interwebz.
Yeah, and the Germans are buying stolen property again. This time, watch out you people with accounts at Credit Suisse.

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