Now that the IRS has closed the Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Program, it has issued new guidance on how voluntary disclosures should be handled going forward. See full text here: OVDP Process Post Sept 2018
Unfortunately, the memo does not provide much information or any unexpected relief. Basically, it is only a restatement of the current voluntary disclosure, which is not new, and a brief explanation of how foreign matters will be handled. In general, foreign non compliance will be reviewed and analyzed based on the current guidelines and standards for reasonable cause, willfulness, etc. Overall, it does not give much comfort as to what penalties can be expected. As such, the most likely user of this option is going to continue to be the taxpayers with criminal exposure.
Even though this option is not perfect, at least it still is an option. At this point, with the IRS using FATCA information to open investigations and the streamlined program likely to close soon, non compliance it would seem is not an option.
