This article from Cardinal Point’s Terry Ritchie highlights another opportunity for Americans abroad to voluntarily pay their U.S. taxes. The IRS is introducing improvements to two offshore account compliance programs in an effort to get non-filing and non-reporting expats to file U.S. tax returns, foreign bank reports and other IRS compliance forms from previous years. Since the first program’s inception, the IRS has collected $6.5 billion in taxes, interest and penalties from 45,00 taxpayers.

Program improvements include the elimination of the questionnaire and $1,500 threshold for the current Streamlined Program. Taxpayers must instead certify that failure to meet past filing and reporting obligations was due to “non-willful conduct.” In addition, Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program (OVDP) changes include the elimination of the reduced penalty percentage for some taxpayers and a new requirement to submit all account statements. To read the full article and access more information on both programs, click here.