IRS instructs its auditors on IRC 6038A summons issuance and taxpayer noncompliance

From ThomsonReuters In an International Practice Unit (IPU), IRS has set out for its auditors the steps they should take when issuing a summons under Code Sec. 6038A and the steps to take if the domestic corporation to which it issues the summons does not substantially comply with the summons. Code Sec. 6038A requires reporting by domestic corporations that are at least 25% foreign owned. Background. Subject to Read More

Initial IRS Audit Campaigns Include Several International Tax Issues

From Lexology On January 31, 2017, the IRS Large Business and International Division (LB&I) announced its initial tax compliance campaigns. In 2016, LB&I began moving toward issue-based examinations, announcing it would focus its limited audit resources on enforcement “campaigns” with respect to issues having high compliance risk for large groups of taxpayers. As anticipated, the initial list has a heavy Read More

IRS Atty ‘Broke Bad,’ Sold Meth In The Mail, Say Prosecutors

From Law360 By Kat Greene Law360, Los Angeles (February 1, 2017, 7:21 PM EST) -- An attorney for the Internal Revenue Service had “better call Saul” after prosecutors on Wednesday arrested and charged the former Debevoise & Plimpton LLP associate and Georgetown Law ethics teacher with conspiring to ship distribution levels of methamphetamine to Long Island from his apartment in Washington, D.C. Jack Vitayanon, Read More

Tax Court Confirms $17M Informant Award For Whistleblowers

From Law 360 By Chuck Stanley Law360, Washington (January 31, 2017, 5:21 PM EST) -- The U.S. Tax Court on Friday awarded husband-and-wife whistleblowers $17.8 million for their role taking down a $74 million corporate tax fraud scheme, denying the IRS’ motion for reconsideration. The decision upholds the court’s previous ruling that awards to whistleblowers should be based on all of the money collected by the U.S. Read More

Additional Pleas to Offshore Account Tax Crimes

DOJ Tax announces, here, the plea to three U.S. offshore account holders.  The banks are the usual suspects -- UBS, Credit Suisse, Bank Leumi and others -- in Switzerland and Israel.  Each of the three related persons -- Dan Farhad Kalili, David Ramin Kalili and David Shahrokh Azarian -- pled to one count of failure to file FBARs, a five year felony.  Sentencing is later. The key excerpts are: Beginning in May 1996, Read More

Dormant Accounts: How a Theft Changed Swiss Banking

From FiNews It is twenty years now that a night guard stole documents destined for the shredder at the predecessor of UBS in Zurich. The theft indirectly caused one of the biggest ever crisis for Swiss banking. And is exemplary for the woes of a once proud industry. Christoph Meili was doing his shift at Union Bank of Switzerland in the night to January 9, 1997, when he spotted documents ready for destruction. He Read More

Weisberg Kainen Mark, PL Featured by South Florida Legal Guide

Weisberg Kainen Mark, PL was recently featured by South Florida Legal Guide! Read More

Westchester County Attorney Charged with Failing to File Tax Returns for Three Years

William O’Hagan, who is also a CPA, is accused of intentionally failing to pay NYS more than $86,000   The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance today announced the arrest and arraignment of a PricewaterhouseCoopers tax partner who allegedly failed to file his state personal income tax returns three years in a row. William J. O’Hagan, 56, of 940 King Street, Chappaqua, was charged with two counts Read More

Texas Doctor Fights $4.3M IRS Fine Over Withholding Issues

By Natalie Olivo Law360, New York (December 9, 2016, 9:33 PM EST) -- The founder of a medical services provider asked a Texas federal judge on Friday to reconsider a $4.3 million tax judgment against him, arguing that he should only have to pay $100,000, the available funds he withheld from the Internal Revenue Service upon learning of his company's tax liabilities. Robert L. McClendon urged U.S. District Judge Lee Read More

10th Circ. Agrees With Tax-Evading Kansas Atty's Conviction

Law360, New York (November 16, 2016, 7:37 PM EST) -- The Tenth Circuit on Wednesday affirmed the criminal conviction of a Kansas attorney who failed to pay more than $1 million in taxes and tried to dodge the IRS by having his law firm cover his personal expenses, rejecting his argument that the evasion was improperly found to be willful. In a published opinion, U.S. Circuit Judge Paul Kelly Jr. dismissed arguments Read More