Ethics and governance in the European Financial centers

The Justice Department and IRS yesterday announced that over 14,700 taxpayers have come forward to report previously-undisclosed foreign bank accounts under the voluntary disclosure program the IRS implemented following the settlement. This figure represents almost double the initial numbers the IRS announced in October and dwarfs the number of voluntary disclosures received in 2008.

However Senator Levin observed that the deal is not so good: the U.S.-Swiss Annex, designed to compel disclosure of the names of U.S persons with Swiss accounts at UBS, is very disappointing as it complicates and muddies what should have been a straightforward agreement by UBS and the Swiss Government to disclose Swiss accounts hidden from the United States by U.S. accountholders.

Read TJN Analysis