Ten Reasons You May Want to Rethink Your Hidden Offshore Account

In light of the new agreement between the Department of Treasury (IRS) and Costa Rica and the Cayman Islands (11/29/2013) concerning disclosure of U.S. Taxpayers Offshore Account, we put together (comedy) ten reasons you may want to rethink your hidden offshore account.

1.          If you didn’t know six months before it happened that the Department of Treasury was planning an Agreement with Costa Rica and the Cayman Islands to disclose assets of U.S. taxpayers then perhaps you may want to re-evaluate your financial consultants
   
   
   2.      If you believed that you could hide hundreds of thousands of dollars, to millions in an offshore bank account with a bank who does business in or with the United States, and therefore didn’t answer yes to Part III on Schedule B of your Form 1040 Tax Return, then you may want to rethink having an offshore bank account.
   
   
   3.      If you don’t have a business with a foreign country address, in which you can claim income from, then perhaps you shouldn’t have an offshore bank account poising as offshore income.
   
   
   4.      If you don’t have an experienced tax attorney with knowledge about U.S. and International tax codes, then perhaps you may want to rethink this whole offshore account thing.
   
   
   
   
   5.      If you have a spouse who may want a divorce in the distant future and already knows about your offshore dealings, which you forgot to report on your U.S. tax returns, then you may want to rethink your offshore bank account.
   
   
   6.      If you are extremely forgetful about large sums of income which you secretly took out of the country $9,999 at a time over the years, then you may want to rethink your offshore account.
   
   
   7.      If you have children who are waiting for you to die, so they can spend all your money, and you decided that hiding your money offshore would be better than it showing up on your tax return, then you may want to rethink how you hide your money.  Offshore may no longer be the best solution if you are doing business with a bank that does business in or with the United States!
   
   
   8.      If you live offshore and you earn offshore and you didn’t bother to file Form 5555 with the IRS, you may want to talk to an International tax professional immediately.
   
   
   9.      If your International bank does business with or in the United States, regardless of where they are located, you may want to review your privacy clause.
   
   
   10.   If you are hiding money from your business partner or shareholders in an offshore account and are doing business with an offshore bank which has to now abide by the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), you may want to do things differently.