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U.S. authorities have targeted Belize-based banks in a new expansion of their hunt for Americans suspected of evading taxes by hiding income and assets in offshore accounts.
A federal court in Miami on Wednesday approved special “John Doe” legal summonses seeking information about U.S. taxpayers who may hold undeclared accounts at Belize Bank International Limited or Belize Bank Limited.
The court order gave federal investigators authorization to seek records of so-called correspondent accounts the Belize banks maintain at Bank of America and Citibank. Information from those accounts, which enable foreign banks without a U.S. presence to handle transactions in U.S. dollars, is expected to help the IRS identify U.S. taxpayers who hold or held accounts at the Belize financial institutions.
“These John Doe summonses will provide detailed information about individuals using financial institutions in Belize and, to the extent funds were transferred, other jurisdictions,” said acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline Ciraolo. “But rest assured, we are receiving information from many sources regarding hidden foreign accounts and offshore schemes.”
[url=http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/09/17/offshore-tax-evasion-probe-expands-to-belize/32550133/]From USA Today – yesterday[/url]
Here are the comments on this story from someone I know, trust and who is very well connected:
“Belize Banks are very lax in their reporting requirements. As a result in the past 5 years Americans hiding money flocked to those banks. They set up Belize IBC with nominee shareholders etc… This was the last “haven” in Central America and Caribbean and of course that put a target on their back.
They could easily do that to Panama and Costa Rica. However Costa Rica “voluntarily” turns that information over already.”
[quote=”Scott”]HHowever Costa Rica “voluntarily” turns that information over already.”
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This is all due to FATCA
Starting mid last year, any in bank transaction in a CR corporate account required a certification from an attorney of who the officers and directors are. If there is a US person in there anywhere, they had to immediately come to the bank and sign a W-8BEN-E or the account was frozen. I had this happen last December when my Canadian partner attempted to add a CR permanent resident as a signatory on a CR corporate account at BCR. Luckily, I just happened to be in country. But, get this, they handed me an IRS tax form to sign that didn’t have a word of English on it anywhere.
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