IRS Commissioner, Doug Shulman, gave his wrap up report on the UBS investigation and related Voluntary Disclosure Program. According to Shulman, during the Voluntary Disclosure Program, more than 15,000 taxpayers came forward; each case involved an average of $200,000 in unpaid taxes. Shulman also stated that the John Doe Summons that was issued to collect information from UBS has been withdrawn, since the IRS and Department of Justice have received all the information they were looking for. He also explains new changes in the agency's efforts to crack down on international tax compliance. You can find his full statement at IRS.gov.
Today, I’m pleased to announce the IRS has withdrawn the John Doe Summons in the UBS AG matter. We are taking this action in light of our success in obtaining the account holder information we sought through the summons and obtained under the August 2009 agreement with the Swiss government and UBS. We appreciate the help and assistance of the Swiss government and UBS during this process.
In addition, I’d especially like to thank the team at the U.S. Justice Department, for its tremendous work and support. We could not have done this without them. Working together, we were able to assure that the agreement was successfully implemented and the United States expectations under this landmark agreement were realized. We look forward to continued partnership with Justice as we continue our work.
Today’s announcement is yet another milestone in our ground-breaking efforts in the international tax compliance arena. Not only are we breaking through the walls of international bank secrecy, we are producing real results for U.S. taxpayers.
I can’t say this enough: When people cheat on their taxes, the vast majority of honest U.S. taxpayers suffer the consequences and have to make up the difference.
The John Doe Summons in the UBS case was just one piece of a much larger effort underway here at the IRS on international issues. There are many elements to it.
As part of our efforts, we have renamed and reshaped our large corporate division into the Large Business and International Division in order to further emphasize and specialize our international and offshore banking efforts. We also continue to work closely with other governments through the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development.
Today, I want to give you an update on our high-profile efforts that touch on our continuing offshore banking efforts.
First, here is an update on our offshore voluntary disclosure program:
We have had thousands more taxpayers come in through our voluntary disclosure program since our special program ended last year. We had approximately 15,000 voluntary disclosures from individuals who came in before the VDP program ended.