Tax Notes Magazine Picks UBS Whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld as '2009 Tax Person of the Year'

Other 'Notables' Considered Include IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman and House Ways and Means Chairman Charles B. Rangel

FALLS CHURCH, Va., Jan. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Tax Notes, the weekly publication on federal taxation, announced its "2009 Tax Person of the Year" - a whistleblower from Swiss banking giant UBS whom it called "the Benedict Arnold of the private banking industry."

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060914/TALOGO)

In this week's issue, Tax Notes cited Birkenfeld's successful effort to reveal "what goes on in the wealth protection units of the world's major banks." Birkenfeld, the magazine wrote, "single-handedly made 2009 the year in which the world finally got serious about cracking down on tax evasion."

Due to his efforts, Tax Notes explained, UBS AG admitted helping U.S. clients evade taxes; UBS provided information on thousands of U.S. account holders that made its way to U.S. authorities; numerous criminal prosecutions of Americans with undisclosed bank accounts are working their way through the courts; the IRS expanded its voluntary disclosure program to enable taxpayers to come clean in exchange for reduced penalties and no jail time; European leaders declared an end to the era of cross-border tax evasion; and the OECD renewed its counter-tax-haven campaign.

Other "notable and talented figures" whom Tax Notes considered for "Person of the Year" were IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman; House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel; former Treasury Acting Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy Michael Mundaca; American Enterprise Institute economist Alan D. Viard; TaxProf blogger Paul L. Caron; Hochman, Salkin, Rettig, Toscher & Perez partner Charles P. Rettig; PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Ken Kuykendall; New York State Bar Association Tax Section Chair Erika W. Nijenhuis; and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal partner David T. Cowart.

Tax Notes is a product of Tax Analysts, the nonprofit publisher of other print and online tax publications. To read the "2009 Tax Person of the Year" article, go to Tax Analysts' Web site at www.TaxAnalysts.com.

About Tax Analysts:

Tax Analysts is an influential provider of tax news and analysis for the global community. Over 150,000 tax professionals in law and accounting firms, corporations, and government agencies rely on Tax Analysts' federal, state, and international content daily. Key products include Tax Notes, Tax Notes Today, State Tax Notes, State Tax Today, Tax Notes International, and Worldwide Tax Daily. Founded in 1970 as a nonprofit organization, Tax Analysts has the industry's largest tax-dedicated correspondent staff with more than 250 domestic and international correspondents. For more information and the latest news, visit our home page.

SOURCE Tax Analysts

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