As has been widely reported in the news media, the IRS has extended the deadline until October 15, 2009, for taxpayers to disclose voluntarily the existence, location and amounts of any foreign bank accounts they control, but which they have not reported previously.  The original deadline for such submissions was September 23, 2009, so this extension gives taxpayers an additional three weeks to comply.
 
The voluntary disclosure program is designed to reduce civil penalties and, most importantly, eliminate the possibility of criminal prosecution from failure to report the existence of foreign bank accounts or pay any income tax on earnings from those accounts.  This is done using the Treasury Department's required Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts form TD F 09-22.1, which can be downloaded on the IRS web site.   

Again, the IRS's enforcement efforts against UBS, and its negotiations with the Swiss government to obtain lists of secret accounts, have received extensive coverage in the Wall Street Journal and other financial media.  This is a major enforcement initiative by the IRS.
 
In our practice, we have found taxpayers who control foreign bank accounts can be as diverse as recent immigrants who continue to share joint account ownership with a family member still in their native country to grown children of Depression-era Americans who put money aside in foreign banks out of fear of another failure of the U.S. banking system.    
 
We have assisted a variety of taxpayers in making these disclosures.  We encourage anyone with a question about the program to contact us as soon as possible.  The IRS has described the extension of this voluntary disclosure program as "one-time" and has announced "there will be no further extensions." 

1600 Atlanta Financial Center - 3343 Peachtree Road, NE - Atlanta GA 30326 - 404.233.7000