Anxious Clients Seek Lawyer Therapy as IRS Deadline Looms re Foreign Accounts
Faced with a tough choice between confessing their sins to the Internal Revenue Service or waiting for the federal enforcement agency potentially to pounce, a number of individuals are looking to lawyers for more than traditional legal advice concerning offshore bank accounts.
As the Oct. 15 deadline looms for American clients of Swiss bank UBS AG and other foreign institutions to seek more lenient penalties in exchange for telling the IRS about undisclosed income and assets, some still have emotionally wrenching issues to resolve, reports Bloomberg. One concern for some taxpayers is what to tell a spouse about undisclosed assets. Another is whether confessing to the IRS could implicate a relative.
“Some people come in and are very nervous,” says Barbara Kaplan, a New York partner of Greenberg Traurig who represents about 75 taxpayers who plan to throw themselves on the mercy of the IRS. “With some, there are lots of tears. I tell them I can’t deal with their emotional issues relating to this. You have to talk to your therapist about that. I charge too much for that.”
