The Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) has existed since 2009 to allow taxpayers to come forward and report offshore accounts they had previously failed to disclose to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).  Both individuals living abroad and individuals within the United States must report offshore accounts annually and can face penalties and fines if they fail to do so.

In an effort to crack down on tax evasion, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service require U.S. persons with foreign bank accounts to complete Form TD F 90-22.1. This form is more commonly referred to as FBAR, short for Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts.  A failure to file can result in penalties of 50 percent of the high account balance. 

On May 28, 2014, a Federal District Court Jury in Florida awarded FBAR penalties amounting to $2,241,809 to the U.S. government for a man’s failure to disclose an offshore account that had a high balance of $1,691,054 during the years that the account was not in compliance with information reporting requirements. This FBAR penalty is equivalent to 150% of the highest account value in the undeclared foreign bank account.

American Taxpayers with undisclosed foreign accounts may soon have their account information given  to the United States Government, because Credit Suisse has agreed to pay over 2.6 billion dollars in fines to the U.S. Government, and has also pleaded guilty to various illegal financial activity.  Because of this landmark case, other foreign banks may now enter into plea agreements with the U.S. Government.

Credit Suisse has agreed to pay 2.6 billion to the United States Government: U.S. Taxpayers hidden account information will be disclosed in the future by foreign banks because of this ground breaking agreement. Overseas banks will now fear criminal prosecution themselves and will probably fully cooperate with the U.S. Government.