It will hurt your eventually. This is post I cannot find on the originating site. http://www.sovereignman.com/ It is possible I will show up eventually and I highly recommend you review the information there with all you mental faculties operating.
US gov’t: failure to disclose foreign account is worse than possession of child porn!!
Date: August 28, 2012
Reporting From: Spoleto, Italy
Jacques Wajsfelner of Weston, Massachusetts is a criminal mastermind. Big time. Like Lex Luthor. But rest easy, ladies and gentlemen, for this nefarious villain is about to face some serious jail time thanks to the courageous work of US government agents.
You see, Mr. Wajsfelner was finally caught and convicted of a most heinous crime: failing to disclose his foreign bank account to the US government. Note– he was not convicted of tax evasion. He was not convicted of failing to file or pay taxes. His crime was not filing the annual Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR).
Because of his failure to disclose his foreign bank account, Wajsfelner is now looking at FIVE YEARS behind bars in a Day-Glo orange jumpsuit.
Oh, one more thing– Wajsfelner is 83 years old. He was born in Germany during the global depression and rise of Adolf Hitler. The Wajsfelner family soon fled the Nazi regime and made its way to the United States. It was a different world back then.
Sentencing guidelines suggest that Wajsfelner will get some combination of jail time and supervised release to the tune of several years.
Then there’s Eric Higgins of Port Huron, Michigan, who was recently busted for major possession of child pornography and engaging in sexually explicit conversations with juveniles online. He was given 20 months. Oh… and Mr. Higgins was a US Customs & Border Patrol agent.
Or Melford Christmas, a US immigration officer from New York, who was given 18 months for demanding and accepting bribes to speed along US citizenship applications of foreign nationals.
Or Ricardo Cordero, another US Customs & Border Patrol officer who was given 27-months for personally smuggling 30 Mexican nationals into the United States, and assisting another smuggler to bring 15 Mexican nationals across the border. This genius even had the smuggler testify as a character witness at his divorce proceeding!
Or Jon Corzine, former CEO of Goldman Sachs and member of the political elite, who presided over one of the largest plunders in the financial system ever seen during the recent MF Global collapse. He walks the streets freely to this day.
It seems pretty clear where the US government stands: the victimless crime of failing to report a foreign bank account is far more egregious than, say, possession of child pornography, engaging with minors in online sex chat, bribery, extortion, fraud, and abuse of official power.
This is what justice means in the Land of the Free today. Have you hit your breaking point yet?
As a parting note, I just want to remind readers once again that US taxpayers with foreign financial accounts are obliged to file form TDF 90-22.1 to the Department of Treasury each year by June 30th, as well as file IRS form 8938 and 1040 schedule B with your normal tax return each year.
It should be clear by now that failing to file is not an option. If you are delinquent in filing from past years, it’s much better to catch up and file late than to not file at all.
Until tomorrow,
Simon Black
Senior Editor, SovereignMan.com
Simon is edgier than I and I like his information. If you don’t know the rules you may end up as an example for the rest of us. Now, for most of world this will never matter. For those who are currently incarcerated outside of prison but inside the confines of North America, the average citizen, this might not matter either because you believe it doesn’t have anything to do with you. It does buy the way. If you are one of those who believe it is GW Bush’s fault OR one who believes it is Obama’s fault you have been captured by their magic act while the real play happens elsewhere.
You really should review the rules at IRS.com regarding FBAR and the big picture as explained at Wikipedia. You may want to pay attention to how much information is kept and required to be shared that is exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
What isn’t mentioned is the banks hate having to fill out information like this. It costs them money and they are in the business of spending money only on what produces a profit. Informing any government of money movements kind of defeats their purpose you know. They have created, like all organizations with a set of rules, another set of internal rules to make sure they stay out of trouble, to make sure they don’t have to file paperwork. If you have your money in an US bank they have a set of rules that will close your account. It’s called ‘unusual activity’ and it will occur long before you trigger their being required to submit a [SAR] Suspicious Activity Report. Unusual activity is never explained but when you do enough it will cause them to close your account. Taking a long vacation outside the USA? Make sure you know what you are doing or your cards may no longer work. You could have all your funds frozen and there is nothing you can do about it until you get home….
Don’t believe me!? Good luck.
How Life Works 