In their efforts to combat tax evasion, the IRS is mulling over two proposals. The first is to get US Banks to disclose the details of their foreign customers (non-US citizens) and the second is to get foreign banks in the US to disclose details of their US customers. Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan) is urging the IRS to impose such information sharing requirements on the banks. At present, a similar proposal has been imposed on foreign institutions.

Elsie Bean, who is the chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, spoke on behalf of Levin when she said the proposed requirement on foreign banks would prevent the US from becoming a tax haven. Bean, staff director of the subcommittee, said it is fair to require all US banks to identify their foreign customers if overseas institutions might be required to disclose information about their US depositors.

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