The United States Internal Revenue Service is gearing up for a widespread campaign to identify federal income tax scofflaws living outside the United States. Tens of thousands of them are estimated to be living in Israel.
The Feds will presumably require banks worldwide to report on all customers with U.S. citizenship or residency, even if they hold a foreign, including Israeli, passport. U.S. tax law requires all American citizens, including those living abroad, to file annual income tax returns reporting their worldwide income.
According to a report submitted to Congress, more than seven million U.S. expatriates are obliged by law to file income tax returns, but IRS figures show only 7% of them filed returns for 2009.
IRS figures puts the number of Americans living in Israel who must file returns at about 100,000.
Darlene Hart of U.S. Tax & Financial Services, a European accounting firm with offices in London, Geneva, Zurich and Tel Aviv, says that the duty to report to the IRS goes beyond those who hold U.S. citizenship.
Only 34% of those who are required to file income tax returns with the IRS or required to report their worldwide income, she claims. "U.S. income tax returns have to be filed by U.S. citizens, holders of green cards and by people who are residents under the substantial presence test of the Internal Revenue Code," explains American tax lawyer Jo Anne Adlerstein, who consults in Israel and is counsel to Cohen Tauber Spievack & Wagner PC in New York. "People who work in the U.S. or have income from the U.S. may also be required to file income tax returns."
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