. . . look at Italy.
Quiet, simple, no heavy penalties, nothing required from the taxpayer which would rat out someone else.
Ninety! Five! Billion! Euros! declared, and another € 30 billion expected because they extended the deadline from 15 December 2009 to April 30, 2010.
Dear IRS,
Your long-term profit-maximizing strategy is to get people legal, declared, and on the table. Then you’ll collect income tax during their lives, and estate tax when they die.
Your profit-maximizing strategy is not well-served by enticing volunteers to step forward then
poking them with a pointed stickdropping a 16 ton weight (YouTube) on their heads.Love,
Phil
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Over 2000 Germans have applied for the voluntary disclosure program for reporting mainly Swiss domiciled bank accounts, after it was reported that a CD with Swiss account information has been provided to the German tax authorities.
There are currently no additional penalties applied in Germany for voluntary disclosure, just back taxes and interest:
“Bei einer Selbstanzeige muss der Betroffene nur die Steuern und Zinsen nachzahlen. Eine Strafe droht ihm nicht, es sei denn, sein Fall ist den Behörden schon bekannt”
http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/0,1518,678626,00.html
As usual, in this country it is about getting a short term financial gain to fund the pensions of our elected and government officials. No place here for compassion, understanding or consideration of extenuating circumstances.