The year 2016 was an epic year in the offshore world due to the leaks of confidential offshore financial information known as the “Panama Papers”. In addition, in 2016, more countries began to report offshore financial information to the IRS under FACTA (the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act).
Also in 2016, the IRS and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) continued to successfully attack offshore banking “secrecy”, moving beyond Switzerland to other foreign jurisdictions. “Going offshore” for the purposes of hiding money from the IRS is now impossible. Going offshore for asset protection from civil creditors and for tax minimization is still viable and effective, but must be tax-compliant.
Further Erosion of Offshore Bank Secrecy and Encouraging Tax Compliance
- In 2016, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) released a massive amount of once-confidential offshore information known as the “Panama Papers”. The files included sensitive
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