If you are, or if you know, a person who is avoiding paying their taxes by stashing their cash in an offshore account, the IRS has announced a new amnesty program for just that sort of rich d-bag.

Most tax cheats who fess up to their offshore accounts will only face a penalty of 25% of the amount in the foreign bank accounts in the year with the highest aggregate account. That’s down from the usual penalty of 50%.

If you’re one of those people with an offshore account whose accounts or assets total less than $75,000 in a calendar year, you might only have to pay a 12.5% penalty.

“It gives people a chance to come in before we find them,” Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman said.

The IRS has been investigating several large international banks that it believes have helped set up offshore accounts for wealthy customers.

In 2009, a separate amnesty program resulted in 15,000 apologetic tax cheats coming forward.

U.S. starts new offshore amnesty for tax cheats [Reuters]

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