IRS Sets Forth Strategy to Fight International Tax Evasion

The Internal Revenue Service announced plans to reduce the tax gap from non-US taxpayers and transactions. Among the proposed efforts: greater outreach to international taxpayers, improve information reporting and withholding, work with tax treaty partners to discourage arbitrage and other abusive schemes and improved employee training.

It is very hard to imagine anyone in the U.S. being overly unhappy with getting tax dollars legitimately due from ex-pats and noncitizens. While the proposed steps are reasonable and appropriate, a concern is that the IRS could get obsessive and spend more in pursuing overseas tax avoiders/evaders than the extra taxes gathered.