WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some 14,700 rich Americans worried about a U.S. government crackdown on offshore tax cheats came forward to participate in a tax amnesty program, U.S. Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman told reporters in a telephone briefing on Tuesday. Participation in the Internal Revenue Service's tax amnesty program was "unprecedented" and the final number was nearly double the IRS's estimate in October.
Not one American involved in the US Virgin Islands Economic Development Commission Program would have had any tax motivation to be among the 14,700 who came forward to participate in the tax amnesty program. Why? The US Virgin Islands is NOT a tax haven with bank secrecy laws, undeclared bank accounts and assets used for tax evasion. Instead, the EDC Program provides enormous tax savings similar to offshore arrangements, but in a Congressionally-approved program under the US flag. The EDC Program operates with complete transparency allowing US citizens, as well as non-US citizens, to own and operate businesses and receive a 90% exemption against US income taxes on their worldwide income, thereby providing an effective top US income tax rate of 3.5%.
"The whole game around bank secrecy, around offshore (tax) evasion is changing" because of pressure from the U.S. Justice Department and from international capital markets, Shulman said.
With the tax landscape changing, rather than use risky or perhaps illegal offshore tax strategies, investigate how you can legally qualify for unprecedented tax benefits under the US flag with the US Virgin Islands EDC Program.
