Offshore Tax Evasion : U.S. Efforts to Collect Unpaid Taxes and the Credit Suisse Case

Offshore tax evasion has been an issue of concern, not only due to tax fairness and legal compliance issues, but also because lost tax revenues contribute to the U.S. annual deficit, which today exceeds $500 billion. Collecting unpaid taxes is one way to reduce the deficit without raising taxes. According to the IRS, the current estimated annual U.S. tax gap is $450 billion, which represents the total amount of U.S. taxes owed but not paid on time, despite an overall tax compliance rate among American taxpayers of 83 percent. Contributing to that annual tax gap are offshore tax schemes responsible for lost tax revenues totaling an estimated $150 billion each year. This book focuses on offshore tax evasion and the United States efforts to collect unpaid taxes, and also discusses the credit Suisse case.