Tax Evasion | featured news

Swiss bank UBS AG "systematically and deliberately" violated U.S. law by dispatching private bankers to recruit wealthy Americans interested in evading taxes and must be forced to reveal the identities of 52,000 of those clients, the Justice Department said in a court filing Tuesday.

Officials say measures to shut down offshore tax havens would bring the government $210 billion over the next decade in otherwise lost tax revenue.

The chairman of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee plans to introduce legislation to give U.S. tax collectors more tools to police offshore tax evasion, an aide to the senator said on Wednesday.

A Senate report estimated in 2008 that the United States loses up to $100 billion a year in tax revenue to offshore tax havens (PDF). In a report released Wednesday, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group offers a state-by-state breakdown of the cost to taxpayers of tax revenue lost to "shell companies and sham headquarters" in places like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.

The agency has drafted a plan that significantly lowers a penalty that applies to wealthy Americans who hide money overseas in secret accounts.

At least 13 firms receiving billions of dollars in bailout money owe a total of more than $220 million in unpaid federal taxes, a key lawmaker said Thursday.

The Swiss government says it will cooperate on cases of international tax evasion, breaking with a long-standing tradition.

BERLIN (Reuters) - European leaders meeting in Berlin on Sunday have backed oversight of all financial markets and products, including hedge funds, and urged that sanctions be drawn up to punish tax havens, according to a final statement seen by Reuters.

President Obama and the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee voiced unqualified support for Tom Daschle on Monday.

Health Secretary-designate Tom Daschle apologized in a letter released on Monday for errors that prompted him to pay $140,000 in back taxes, saying he was "deeply embarrassed" and would answer any questions a Senate panel had about them.