Tax fraud occurs on a considerable scale that can exceed law enforcement’s ability to detect and punish the conduct. This is true at both the federal and state levels. As of 2015, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) and the...more
On June 18, 2014, the IRS announced major changes to the OVDP, including a major expansion of the so-called Streamlined Program and an increased penalties for taxpayers who held accounts at banks that are under criminal...more
The Chicago Tribune reports that Beanie Babies creator Ty Warner, who pleaded guilty last year to one of the largest tax frauds in Chicago-area history, has asked the federal court to sentence him to probation. His sentencing...more
On November 29, 2013, the Cayman Islands and the U.S. Signed a FATCA IGA. The Cayman Islands IGA is a Model 1B agreement, meaning that FFIs in the Cayman Islands will be required to report tax information about U.S. account...more
Tax Analysts Tax Notes reports that Kathryn Keneally, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department Tax Division, said that Swiss banks that enter the IRS’s newly-offered program will receive no credit for customers...more
In an update to her December 2012 report, the Taxpayer Advocate has noted that the IRS still has not provided reasonable options for “benign actors”, or taxpayers who inadvertently violated the rules for reporting foreign...more
On June 6, 2013, the IRS released Revenue Ruling 2013-14, which holds that Mexican fideicomisos or Land Trusts are not trusts for U.S. tax purposes. “Fideicomisos have been an issue in the offshore disclosure world for quite...more
On February 1, 2013, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin sentenced Arvind Ahuja, a Milwaukee neurosurgeon, to serve three years of probation and to pay a fine of $350,000 following his conviction by...more
On February 7, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit joined “the three of our sister circuits that have considered the same issue here about foreign financial account records and conclude that the...more
On May 13, 2013, the Supreme Court denied a taxpayer’s petition for certiorari regarding the Seventh Circuit’s August 27, 2012, decision applying the Required Records Exception to override the taxpayer’s Fifth Amendment...more
Sanjay Sethi, a New Jersey businessman, pleaded guilty on January 7, 2013 to using hidden offshore bank accounts to defraud the U.S. in a so-called “Klein conspiracy.”...more