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IRS Signals That Singapore-Based Accounts May Be Next On Its Target List - Report
Tom Burroughes
21 July 2015
The US Internal Revenue Service is investigating whether a Singapore asset management firm accepted transfers from undeclared Swiss accounts that had been shut by US taxpayers, according to the Wall Street Journal. The asset management firm wasn’t named in the article. The WSJ said lawyers whom it had contacted declined to name the firm but said a handful of clients had been questioned about the asset manager. Family Wealth Report is in contact with the IRS about the matter and may update in due course. A move by the IRS to probe Asia-based accounts would, if confirmed, suggest that the IRS, which so far has concentrated much of its extra-territorial fire on Switzerland, may be going further East. Singapore, ironically, is often touted as a rival to Switzerland although that jurisdiction has been at pains to stress it will not be an easy touch for tax dodgers. Bryan Skarlatos, a lawyer with Kostelanetz & Fink in New York, was quoted as saying that the IRS and US Justice Department "seem be turning their focus east, where there are many US taxpayers with accounts."