Maintaining an offshore bank account is not illegal, however, failing to report income and interest earned is tax evasion. Effective January 1, 2017, IRS Revenue Procedure 2017-31 added Belgium, Columbia and Portugal to the list of countries that participate in the automatic exchange of information on bank interest paid to nonresident alien individuals. This addition means there are now 43 countries participating in the automatic exchange program. The IRS only shares information with countries that have entered into this mutual information exchange agreement. The IRS is statutorily barred from sharing information with another country without such an agreement in place. All U.S. information exchange agreements require that the information exchanged under the agreement be treated and protected as secret by the foreign government. This is one of the most effective tools the U.S. Government has to combat tax evasion.
