As published in the Winter Park/Maitland Observer, Thursday Jan. 3, 2012 Edition Offers... Read More »
The 3 most frequently prosecuted tax crimes
As published in the Winter Park/Maitland Observer Newspaper on December 6, 2012 The IRS criminal investigation division investigates and refers for prosecution some tax crimes more than others. Here are the three most frequently prosecuted tax crimes: Failure to File Tax Returns The Law 26 U.S.C. § 7203 – Willful failure to file return, supply…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Articles, Criminal Tax, Unfiled Tax ReturnsIRS Ignored Fraud
Would a private sector company ever do this? Richard Rubin of Bloomberg.com reports that the Internal Revenue Service’s approach to issuing tax identification numbers to non-U.S. residents let fraud go undetected, according to a report by the agency’s inspector general: The IRS emphasized getting applications processed while creating an environment that discouraged employees from stopping potentially…
Read Full Article Categorized in: IRS ProcedureIt’s Easy to Steal IRS Refunds
Two years ago we addressed the IRS’s flawed refund procedure in False Refund Schemes and Backwards IRS Return Processing Rules. Today, Jay Weaver of the Miami Herald gives a distressing update in Scammers Steal IRS Refunds with Ease: “We are seeing defendants once involved in other types of crimes [such as drug trafficking] getting involved in identity-theft schemes,…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Individual Taxation, IRS Procedure, News, Tax CrimesIRS Continues to Battle Tax Refund Fraud
WebCPA reports that the IRS increased the number of fraudulent tax refund claims it detected and stopped during the 2011 tax-filing season by 171 percent over the previous year: As of April 30, 2011, the IRS had identified 775,723 tax returns with $4.6 billion claimed in fraudulent refunds and prevented the issuance of $4.4 billion,…
Read Full Article Categorized in: IRS Audits, IRS Procedure, Regulation of Tax Preparers, Tax CrimesLawyer Pleads Guilty to Raiding Client Trust Fund & Filing Fraudulent Return
Law and More reports that attorney Jeffrey Abramowitz has pleaded guilty to stealing client funds and filing a fraudulent tax return: Here’s yet another situation which demonstrates the need for checks and balances in law firms for ensuring that attorneys don’t embezzle client funds. Former partner in a two-lawyer firm, Jeffrey Abramowitz, has pleaded guilty…
Read Full Article Categorized in: News, Tax CrimesWill Moving Signature Line to Top of Form Result in Less Tax Cheating?
Carmen Nobel of Harvard Business School’s blog Working Knowledge writes in Signing at the Top: The Key to Preventing Tax Fraud: [M]any taxpayers give in to the temptation to cheat on their taxes—in spite of the requirement for them to sign a statement declaring that the information on the form is “true, correct, and complete.”…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Individual Taxation, Tax CrimesSurvivor Richard Hatch Goes Back to Jail for Tax Crimes
Richard Hatch can survive in the wild but not in civilization. The Associated Press reports that the reality T.V. star turned himself in to U.S. marshals in Rhode Island on Monday to begin a nine-month prison sentence for failing to pay taxes on the $1 million he won on first season of the CBS show…
Read Full Article Categorized in: News, Tax CrimesFile Your Unfiled Returns Before the IRS Does it for You
The New York Daily News reports that day-trader Marcos Esparza Bofill has been hit with a $172,000,000 IRS tax bill: He failed as a day-trader and barely survived in New York on a beer budget, but Marcos Esparza Bofill has been hit with a $172 million tax bill by the IRS. Esparza Bofill didn’t file an income…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Back Taxes, Blog Posts, Unfiled ReturnsDialogues with Tax Protesters
I recently received a barage of vulgar and threatening comments from several unhinged tax protesters (these folks have serious anger problems) about my contention that people who argue that the federal income tax is a form of slavery are a couple of ants short of a picnic. If I published these frenzied screeds, it would conclusively prove my point…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Absurd Tax Protester ArgumentsMore Snipes Silliness
I just read Snipes’s petiton for cert and discovered that his lawyers’ arguments are wackier than I had first thought. Before his criminal trial Wesley Snipes claimed that venue was not proper in the Middle District of Florida, Ocala Division. The Court then allowed the venue issue to be presented to the jury. The jury found, by…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Supreme Court, Tax CrimesWarning: The IRS Knows Who the Tax Cheats Are
Tara Siegel Bernard wrote a Column in the Your Money section of the New York Times yesterday in which she considers whether more taxpayers will cheat on their taxes this year because of the bad economy: With just a few more days to file your tax returns, you may be tempted — especially in this down…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Blog PostsIRS Now Encourages Whistleblowers to Report Mere Tax Return Mistakes
Once again, the IRS wants the American people to do its job for them. Michael Cohn of Accounting Today reports that the IRS has issued new regulations making it easier for whistleblower’s to blow and collect their blood money: In December 2006, Congress amended Section 7623 of the Tax Code to establish the IRS Whistleblower Office…
Read Full Article Categorized in: IRS Audits, IRS Procedure, Legislative Watch, News, Tax CrimesIRS is Auditing More Taxpayers; Hire a Reputable Preparer
The Associated Press reports that the IRS is intensifying and expanding its tax return audit program: The IRS is making it a bit riskier to cheat on your taxes. The tax agency increased the number of returns it audited by nearly 11 percent this year, statistics released Wednesday show. Wealthy taxpayers and big businesses were most likely to…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Individual Taxation, IRS Audits, IRS Penalties, IRS Procedure, Tax CrimesIRS Cracking Down on Crooked Preparers
Tax law Professor and blogger Linda Beale today wrote exuberantly about the IRS’s crackdown on tax preparer abuse in Tax preparer — old abuses, new procedures. Here’s an excerpt: The days of just anyone becoming a tax return preparer and playing havoc with the rules, as some have, seem to be winding down. The courts, for one,…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Regulation of Tax Preparers, Tax CrimesTIGTA: IRS Needs to Investigate Preparers Who Make False EITC Claims
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) says that the IRS needs to crack down on Earned Income Tax Credit preparer fraud: The Internal Revenue Service needs to improve its ability to identify tax preparers who submit improper Earned Income Tax Credit claims, according to a new government report. The report, by the Treasury…
Read Full Article Categorized in: Credits, IRS Audits, IRS Procedure, Tax Crimes