"Switzerland To Turn Over Secret Bank Account Names"
The Swiss government said it would turn over to U.S. authorities by August 2010 the names of U.S. taxpayers with UBS accounts of more than 1 million Swiss francs ($993,000), and also those holding suspicious accounts as low as 250,000 francs.
Internal Revenue Service officials said the same standards apply to other Swiss banks and could be used to identify U.S. taxpayers holding secret accounts elsewhere in the country. "These criteria can be used to make requests of the Swiss authorities about other banks and we reserve the right to do so," said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman.............
The IRS's special Voluntary Disclosure Program for all offshore account holders with undeclared income was "flooded" with applicants during its final days, bringing the total number of confessions to 14,700, Mr. Shulman said. That was almost double the preliminary estimate of 7,500 made when the program ended Oct. 15 after a three-week extension. He said the agency has no estimate of the revenue raised by the program, other than "billions of dollars."......(More on this story in link below)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870443180457454...
