IRS PR Campaign

There are several stories out today based on IRS press releases about their cracking down on people who use offshore credit cards. The presumption is that anyone who has an offshore account is by definition a tax cheater. As we all know, in tax matters, there is no presumption of innocent. Everyone is assumed to be guilty unless they can prove otherwise.

Some additional insight into this is needed. This is mainly an IRS effort to scare off anyone who may be considering opening an offshore account. What always amazes me is how IRS and their doting fans in the media can fabricate numbers out of thin air and then trumpet those figures as facts. They claim two million offshore credit card accounts, when in actuality they have no idea. This is just as bogus as the much hyped tax gap of uncollected taxes. That number is completed made up because by definition, unreported income is unmeasurable. There is no way IRS can ever know how many people have offshore accounts because if they set them up properly, they can't know this. There may only be a few thousand people doing this; but that wouldn't attract as much attention as two million; nor would it justify an increase in IRS's budget to visit the offshore locations.

KMK
- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 3/26/2002 11:16:00 AM Send this post: