New Global Partnership Formed to Combat International Tax Crime

Law enforcement leaders from five countries have joined efforts in their fight against international tax crime and money laundering. The new “Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement” (J5) brings together tax enforcement authorities from Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, the U.K. and the U.S. to develop new strategies in the pursuit...

IRS Focus: Tracking Cryptocurrency

In our recent blogs on the new Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Division (IRS-CI) priorities, we noted that new IRS-CI director John D. Fort has placed his department on high alert for tax fraud involving bitcoin and other digital currencies. Here, we discuss U.S. taxpayer noncompliance and various cryptocurrency tax...

The 2018 IRS Dirty Dozen,
Part IV: Tax Return Preparer Fraud

Other Posts in this Series Part I: Identity Theft, Phone and Phishing Scams, Fake Charities Part II: Padding Deductions, Claiming Undeserved Business Credits, Falsifying Income, Inflating Refunds Part III: Abusive Tax Shelters, Offshore Tax Schemes, and Frivolous Tax Arguments Tax return preparer fraud gets its own place on the IRS...

The 2018 IRS Dirty Dozen,
Part III: Abusive Tax Shelters, Offshore Tax Schemes, and Frivolous Tax Arguments

Other Posts in this Series Part I: Identity Theft, Phone and Phishing Scams, Fake Charities Part II: Padding Deductions, Claiming Undeserved Business Credits, Falsifying Income, Inflating Refunds Part IV: Tax Return Preparer Fraud In this post we continue our coverage of tax evasion schemes with three that make it to...

The 2018 IRS Dirty Dozen,
Part II: Padding Deductions, Claiming Undeserved Business Credits, Falsifying Income, Inflating Refunds

Other Posts in this Series Part I: Identity Theft, Phone and Phishing Scams, Fake Charities Part III: Abusive Tax Shelters, Offshore Tax Schemes, and Frivolous Tax Arguments Part IV: Tax Return Preparer Fraud In our last post, we covered four schemes aimed at taking advantage of well-meaning taxpayers. The next...

The 2018 IRS Dirty Dozen,
Part I: Identity Theft, Phone and Phishing Scams, Fake Charities

Other Posts in this Series Part II: Padding Deductions, Claiming Undeserved Business Credits, Falsifying Income, Inflating Refunds Part III: Abusive Tax Shelters, Offshore Tax Schemes, and Frivolous Tax Arguments Part IV: Tax Return Preparer Fraud Every year, the IRS releases a list of 12 schemes that are especially popular during...

Tax Return Preparer Sentenced to 27 Months for Tax Evasion

Tax evasion carries severe penalties, even in cases in which no one else has been defrauded. The facts From 2005 through 2011, Semere Tsehaye owned more than 20 Instant Tax Service (ITS) franchises in Illinois, Kansas and Missouri, under the names A&S Tax Service LLC and ERI Enterprises LLC. In...

San Antonio Businessman Sentenced To Four Years in Prison for Defrauding Personal Injury Clients, the Bankruptcy court, and the IRS

From 2009 through 2014, Elpidio Gongora (aka “Pete Gongora”), operated a number of personal injury law offices in Texas, Arkansas and New Mexico. The lawyers in these firms apparently obtained settlements on behalf of their clients, but Gongora did not deliver the money to their clients nor to the medical...

18 Months in Prison for Cashing Client Checks and Not Reporting Income to the IRS

A man who provided landscaping and snowplowing services to residential and commercial customers in Hartford, Connecticut is serving 18 months in jail for underreporting his income. The facts Don Biagi of Don Biagi Landscaping liked to cash his client’s checks – from 2008 to 2010, he cashed 574 checks ranging...