Many people consider not doing their taxes when living in the United States, as it can be a confusing and frustrating process. But there are tax evasion penalties, so the crimes of tax evasion and tax avoidance are things that you do not want to be found guilty of. You want to make sure that you follow the guidelines of the IRS especially for foreign income and do not commit offshore tax evasion, so all of those topics will be discussed.

The Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program is what you may be wondering about first. This program became open ended in 2012 after the IRS saw some success in the program in years prior. The Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program allowed tax payers to pay the taxes and declare any offshore bank accounts of money holdings that they have, even if they have not declared it in the past, so that they do not commit tax evasion. Find out more about this when you go to the site at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melinda-emerson/how-to-prepare-your-busin_b_6830244.html. If a tax payer does not claim these accounts, they face detection by the IRS and penalties for tax evasion.

The next topic that will be discussed is FBAR, which stands for report of foreign bank and financial accounts. You have to claim all types of foreign accounts that you have, and you must follow the guidelines to avoid FBAR penalties if you miss the FBAR deadline. To make sure you know everything about FBAR and the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program, you want to make sure you know the rules backwards and forwards, so you might want to look into hiring the expertise of an international tax lawyer.

You want to make sure to have a reputable and trustworthy international tax lawyer to help you out, so the first step is to make sure this is the case. When looking for an international tax lawyer, ask friends, coworkers, neighbors and relatives if they have anyone in mind or know someone who has used an international tax lawyer before, as recommendations from people you know can be a great and easy way to find a professional. To make sure to avoid tax fraud or tax evasion, make sure that your international tax lawyer has dealt with these issues before, and therefore knows a lot about these areas and has expertise in them.

Additionally, when hiring an international tax lawyer, it is also essential to look for someone who knows about IRS foreign income guidelines. Now hopefully you know what tax evasion is and you know enough about FBAR and the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program to avoid tax evasion and the resulting penalties. Foreign bank accounts require tax payers to use voluntary disclosure to the IRS, so make sure you do not face penalties for tax evasion. If ever you want to know more on what is tax evasion, feel free to visit the given link for information.