IRS disclosure program nets $500 million — so far

The IRS has collected an additional $500 million from a disclosure program designed to collect taxes from accounts stashed offshore, the agency announced Thursday.

The announcement came at the end of a second round of disclosures, which attracted some 12,000 applicants before ending last week. The $500 million figure is also expected to rise, as penalties from the program are levied on taxpayers.

“By any measure, we are in the middle of an unprecedented period for our global international tax enforcement efforts,” IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said in a news release. “We have pierced international bank secrecy laws, and we are making a serious dent in offshore tax evasion.”

In all, some 30,000 tax evaders have come forward since 2009, when the IRS started its first voluntary disclosure program. The 2009 venture, the IRS also announced Thursday, has now collected roughly $2.2 billion, with about 80 percent of cases closed.

The 2011 program had harsher penalties than its predecessor, with the IRS signaling that it did not wish to reward taxpayers who had previously held out. Generally speaking, a taxpayer taking advantage of this year’s venture will have to pay a 25 percent penalty on the highest yearly balance he kept in an offshore bank between 2003 and 2010, in addition to back taxes with interest.

The IRS started up the voluntary disclosure programs after UBS, the Swiss banking giant, entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. government, over charges the bank had obstructed IRS collection efforts.

---