Hope for non-filers and FBAR delinquents

New IRS announcement:

"IRS Announces Efforts to Help U. S. Citizens Overseas Including Dual Citizens and Those with Foreign Retirement Plans"

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=258431,00.html

Of course, the details remain to be seen and one wonders why they could not have done the right thing years ago but maybe there is now some hope for those in US tax purgatory.

Hats off to the Canadians (Canadian Government, Isaac Brock Soc., etc.) and to ACA.

Not quite an amnesty programme, and not an amnesty, but progress over the tactics of 1 or 2 years ago. I would imagine the undesirable publicity, the overload of the system (FBAR submissions have doubled in the last 2 years?), and planned renunciations (with streamlined procedures at some embassies?) have all contributed, with the resulting IRS workload and wanting to concentrate on the big fish being the main driver.

I also noted the retrenchment by the IRS found in the new Swiss/US agreement on implementing FATCA as regards recalcitrant bank customers of interest.

http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Documents/FATCA%20Joint%20Statement%20US-Switzerland.pdf

More to do with the EU crisis than FATCA, but it's becoming difficult to find an available safe deposit box in Switzerland now. 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47946079