Tax Crimes

Many tax proposals are in play as President-elect Donald Trump and his administration prepare to take office. One of those proposals is not about specific tax provisions, but about the structure of the agency itself. The proposal is to split off the criminal enforcement division from the IRS and place it elsewhere within the Treasury […]

One by one, the giants of Swiss banking have fallen. They have been forced to submit to the long-running American enforcement crackdown on offshore accounts. That crackdown is not only long-running; the standards for compliance have been stepped up since Congress passed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in 2010. The first Swiss giant […]

The Internal Revenue Service has electronic procedures for reviewing tax returns for indicia of fraud. Yet by the IRS’ own admission, their fraud detection system may be outdated. The current system was developed in 1994. Called the Electronic Fraud Detection System, the program’s primary goal is to avoid the issuance of fraudulent refunds. The new […]

An accounting error might lead not only to a tax dispute, but charges of fraud. In a recent example, a corporation offered $1.5 million to settle charges of accounting fraud brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC became involved because of the effect the accounting error had on the corporation’s shareholders. According […]

Readers may have questions about when a tax mistake rises to the level of tax evasion or fraud. As a preliminary matter, it should be noted that even the Internal Revenue Service acknowledges the complexity of the tax code. By the agency’s own estimate, about 17 percent of taxpayers fail to comply with applicable tax […]

The Internal Revenue Service recently issued a warning against tax scams. The problem is more widespread than readers may realize: almost 4,000 Americans may already have lost over $20 million due to such deceitful tactics. How could such fraud happen? One method of contact may be via written correspondence on authentic looking letterhead. Notably, those […]

Today was the extended filing deadline for U.S. citizens who lived abroad on the regular tax due date for 2014 returns. You still have until the end of June to file your FBARs, FATCA reports and Statements of Special Foreign Financial Assets, as appropriate, however, which brings us back to those controversial foreign income reports. […]

Whenever financial information is sent over the Internet, you can rely on hackers and identity thieves to try to take advantage of the situation. And, as we’ve discussed before on this blog, that means both federal and state tax returns have been tempting targets for fraud and identity theft. Being the victim of identity theft […]

If you watch the news, you’ve probably heard that Americans have lost a great deal of trust in the federal government recently. A2013 survey by the Pew Research Centerfound that level of trust was nearing an all-time low. Fully 30 percent of the public reported being angry at the federal government, and an additional 55 […]

Picture this: You’ve filed your federal income taxes via TurboTax and everything went fine. You’ve now received the document you were waiting for, and it’s time to file those state taxes. You log into TurboTax, and … your state taxes have mysteriously been e-filed. Is this a new free service? All the tax info looks […]