The financial news that actually matters
Explains tax audits, IRS enforcement actions, penalties, compliance rules, and legal financial obligations. It helps readers understand risk areas and how to respond to audits.
A tax preparer sits in a position of unusual trust. Clients hand over their income, their Social Security numbers, and their bank details, then sign whatever return is put in front of them, often without reading the fine print. Federal prosecutors say a Las Vegas preparer abused that trust to seek more than $5 million…
A large refund can be dangerous when the number came from the preparer rather than the taxpayer’s records. A North Carolina tax-business owner and seven others have admitted conspiring to put fraudulent COVID-era credits on returns, causing nearly $25 million in loss. The pleas underscore a harsh tax rule: the person whose name is on…
Energy tax credits can reduce the cost of legitimate home improvements, but they also give dishonest preparers a plausible-sounding number to insert on a return. A new Alabama complaint alleges that one preparer’s version reached thousands of filings and almost $70 million in losses. The accusation is about volume as well as false eligibility Michael…
Luxury assets can make tax fraud proceeds look safely converted into houses and cars. A recent Florida guilty plea shows the opposite: high-value property can become a roadmap for restitution and forfeiture when prosecutors trace it through a criminal case. The plea reaches far beyond an amended tax bill Daniel Liburdi pleaded guilty in federal…
A charitable remainder annuity trust can be a legitimate estate-planning vehicle, but the IRS has drawn a bright enforcement circle around a specific tax-avoidance arrangement using one. Final regulations now classify the described CRAT transaction and substantially similar versions as listed transactions. That label creates disclosure duties and penalty exposure for affected participants and advisers…
A tax preparer has admitted using an obscure-looking withholding entry to inflate hundreds of refunds and extract larger fees. The resulting federal tax loss was approximately $3.9 million. For retirees, the case is a reminder that signing a return transfers legal exposure to the taxpayer even when a professional created every number on the screen….
Fifteen years outside the United States did not erase the financial consequences of a tax and cash-structuring conspiracy. Jalal Nimer Asad returned, went to trial and now faces a five-year prison term, more than $1 million in restitution and a forfeiture judgment above $4 million. The case separates two remedies that are often blurred together:…
Renouncing U.S. citizenship did not end one former hedge-fund manager’s federal tax exposure. Justin Ryan Schmidt has been sentenced to 37 months in prison and ordered to pay roughly $3.4 million in restitution after prosecutors showed that he reported a net worth of just $25,000 even though his actual wealth exceeded $2 million. The false…
A six-year federal sentence has turned private gambling debts into a public lesson about mortgage disclosures and tax records. Attorney Thomas Goldstein was ordered to pay more than $3.1 million in restitution after convictions that included hiding over $14 million in poker-related debt from lenders, demonstrating how an omitted liability can become evidence of fraud…
Information about hidden tax liabilities can be worth money to the federal government and, in qualifying cases, to the person who supplied it. The IRS says whistleblower submissions have helped it collect more than $8 billion since 2007 while awards have topped $1.4 billion. Those totals describe a formal enforcement system, not a bounty for…