The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has sent a delegation to Israel for the purpose of meeting with the Israel Tax Authority to create an agreement to exchange information about accounts of US customers in Israel and Israeli customers in the U.S.
In line with its recent dealings with Swiss banks, this arrangement will be designed to prevent tax evasion in both nations. Recently, U.S. banks began contacting their Israeli customers demanded that they sign a declaration stating that their assets were reported to the tax authorities in Israel.
The trend towards sharing of information about foreign residents and their bank accounts has accelerated in recent years in the framework of the global war on tax evasion. Authorities in Israel and the US have signed a cooperation agreement.
Banks in Israel now require from their US customers a declaration that their assets were reported to the authorities in the US in the context of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) rules set in the US, which require every financial institution in the world to do this.
The Internal Revenue Service has a whistleblower program allowing individuals reporting original information about major tax fraud to collect up to 30% of what the Government collects via any investigation of the complaints.
Jeffrey Newman represents whistleblowers.
