In all the excitement about the healthcare bill a largly overlooked provision of the recently passed jobs bill will make it much harder for US citizens to hide money in offshore accounts.
A hidden provision in the jobs bill requires all US citizens to declare any funds they may have in offshore accounts, and requires financial institutions to deliver comprehensive information to the US tax authorities, or face severe restrictions on their trading activites and a 30% tax on returns on money invested in US securities.
This has been a big story today in switzerland, but has yet to make much of a splash in the states. The story was broken by the Neue Züricher Zeitung Link to story (warning, german language) a fairly conservative paper, so the story runs with a- how awful and unfair for the offshore banking industry angle.
The implementation will be complex and as we speak an army of lobbyists is preparing to try and get the implementation and enforcement of the legislation made as weak as possible.
Its up to us to make sure they don't succeed.