With less than two weeks until the April 18 deadline for filing individual federal income tax returns, the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service are issuing stern warnings to potential tax cheats. Today the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina and the Special Agent in Charge of the IRS Charlotte Field Office issued a joint press release entitled “Federal Prosecutors Warn Potential Tax Cheats: Tax Crimes Result In Criminal Prosecution, Lengthy Prison Sentences, And Fines.” Their press release announced recent tax fraud prosecutions and sentencings, and is intended to “deliver a powerful warning to those who are thinking about breaking the law by committing tax crimes.”

“As tax filing season reaches its peak, we are putting would-be tax cheats on notice: My office will prosecute those who try to cheat the tax system at the expense of honest taxpayers who file their returns on time and pay the taxes they owe. Our tax system is built on voluntary compliance and tax criminals who do not pay their fair share increase the tax burden on law-abiding taxpayers,” said U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose.

“The 2017 income tax filing season is soon coming to a close, however, special agents of the IRS – Criminal Investigation work year-round to combat criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes. Agents in the Charlotte Field Office have pursued, and will continue to pursue, those who prepare returns fraudulently, steal and misuse identities, and those who take extraordinary measures to conceal their income in an effort to evade their tax responsibility,” said Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Holloman, III. “To build faith in our nation’s tax system, honest taxpayers need to be reassured that everyone is paying their fair share and we will work vigorously to pursue those who do not.”

The press release proceeds to highlight recent successes in prosecuting tax evaders and those who file false tax returns:

Matthew Moretz, 31, of Taylorsville, N.C., pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false tax return. From April 2010 to March 2011, Moretz collected unemployment income from the North Carolina Division of Employment. However, beginning in or about March 2010 and continuing through in or about 2013, Moretz was self-employed as the owner of MJM Recycling, a scrap metal business. From tax year 2010 through tax year 2013, Moretz earned additional personal income totaling approximately $529,622.44 that Moretz failed to report on his U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns Form 1040 filed with the IRS. As a result of the unreported taxable income, Moretz had additional tax due and owing of approximately $116,409.38 from 2010 to 2013. Moretz is currently awaiting sentencing.

Patrick Emanuel Sutherland, 48, of Charlotte, was convicted of filing false tax returns and obstructing a federal grand jury investigation. Court documents and trial evidence showed that, from at least 2007 to 2015, Sutherland was an actuary, and the owner and operator of numerous companies in the insurance and financial industries. Between 2007 and 2010, Sutherland engaged in an elaborate scheme to conceal a substantial amount of income, including filing false tax returns with the IRS which underreported business receipts and personal income of approximately $2 million in income received from an offshore bank account in Bermuda, as well as from domestic sources. Sutherland is currently awaiting sentencing.

Reuben T. DeHaan, 44, of Kings Mountain, N.C., was sentenced to 24 months in prison for tax evasion and possession of an unregistered firearm. DeHaan owned a holistic medicine business, which he operated out of his residence in Kings Mountain under the names Health Care Ministries International Inc. and Get Well Stay Well. During the years 2008 through 2014, DeHaan earned more than $2.7 million in gross receipts from his holistic medicine business, but failed to file income tax returns for those years and evaded approximately $678,000 in income taxes due and owing. DeHaan was also ordered to pay 567,665 in restitution to the IRS and $110,449 to the state of North Carolina.

Another area of focus for the Justice Department and IRS are unscrupulous return preparers and those who perpetrate stolen identity refund fraud:

Ramos, formerly of Lincolnton, N.C., was previously sentenced to 48 months in prison for her role in a false claims conspiracy. The conviction stemmed from Ramos’s role in a conspiracy to defraud the government by filing fraudulent tax returns seeking refunds totaling more than $5 million, by using stolen identity information of individuals in Puerto Rico. Ramos fled the United States and failed to report to federal prison after the sentencing. She is awaiting sentencing on charges of obstruction of justice and failure to report and faces additional jail time and fines.

Cara Michelle Banks, Carmichael Cornilus Hill, and Priscilla Lydia Turner conspired with Senita Dill and Ronald Jeremy Knowles, and others, to file false federal and state tax returns using stolen personal identifying information. From 2009 to 2012, this conspiracy defrauded the United States Treasury of over $3.5 million. Banks, Hill, Turner and others stole personal identifying information and then provided it to Dill to file the false returns in exchange for payment. Dill and Knowles used stolen personal information to file over 1,000 false tax returns. Court records show that Hill provided approximately 26 percent of the stolen identifications used to file the fraudulent returns. In 2016, Banks and Hill were sentenced to 70 months and 75 months in prison, respectively. In November 2016, Turner pleaded guilty to aggravated identity theft and is currently awaiting sentencing. Senita Dill was sentenced to 324 months and Knowles to 70 in prison for their roles in the conspiracy.

Finally, an area of recent intensity for the Justice Department and IRS is employment tax fraud:

Frank Alton Moody, II, 57, of Arden, the co-founder and former Chairman of the Board of CenterCede Services, Inc., a payroll services company, was ordered to serve 30 months in prison, two years in supervised release, and to pay $2,146,380.97 as restitution, for conspiring to steal over $2 million from client companies. Moody’s co-conspirators, Jerry Wayne Overcash and John Bernard Thigpen, were previously sentenced to 46 months and 21 months in prison, respectively. The three men used the more than $2 million they stole from client companies to fund their exorbitant salaries. Overcash and Thigpen were also ordered to jointly pay $1.3 million as restitution to the victim client companies.

The press release concludes with a reminder to taxpayers to exercise caution during tax season to protect themselves against a wide range of tax schemes ranging from identity theft to return preparer fraud. Illegal scams can lead to significant penalties and interest and possible criminal prosecution. IRS Criminal Investigation works closely with the Department of Justice to shutdown scams and to prosecute the criminals behind them. The IRS has issued its annual “Dirty Dozen” which lists common tax scams that taxpayers may encounter, particularly during filing season. Taxpayers are urged look out for, and to avoid, the following common schemes:

• Phishing
• Phone Scams
• Identity Theft
• Return Preparer Fraud
• Fake Charities
• Inflated Refund Claims
• Excessive Claims for Business Credits
• Falsely Padding Deductions on Returns
• Falsifying Income To Claim Credits
• Abusive Tax Shelters
• Frivolous Tax Arguments
• Offshore Tax Avoidance

As we have written previously, it is well-known that the IRS and Justice Department typically increase the frequency of their press releases announcing enforcement activity in the weeks leading up to the filing deadline. In fact, academic research confirms that these agencies issue a disproportionately large number of tax enforcement press releases as “Tax Day” approaches:

Every spring, the federal government appears to deliver an abundance of announcements that describe criminal convictions and civil injunctions involving taxpayers who have been accused of committing tax fraud. Commentators have occasionally suggested that the government announces a large number of tax enforcement actions in close proximity to a critical date in the tax compliance landscape: April 15, “Tax Day.” These claims previously were merely speculative, as they lacked any empirical support. This article fills the empirical void by seeking to answer a straightforward question: When does the government publicize tax enforcement? To conduct our study, we analyzed all 782 press releases issued by the U.S. Department of Justice Tax Division during the seven-year period of 2003 through 2009 in which the agency announced a civil or criminal tax enforcement action against a specific taxpayer identified by name. Our principal finding is that, during those years, the government issued a disproportionately large number of tax enforcement press releases during the weeks immediately prior to Tax Day compared to the rest of the year and that this difference is highly statistically significant. A convincing explanation for this finding is that government officials deliberately use tax enforcement publicity to influence individual taxpayers’ perceptions and knowledge of audit probability, tax penalties, and the government’s tax enforcement efficacy while taxpayers are preparing their annual individual tax returns.

Joshua D. Blank and Daniel Z. Levin, When Is Tax Enforcement Publicized?, 30 Virginia Tax Review 1 (2010).

As “Tax Day 2017” approaches, expect to see similar announcements intended to deter would-be tax cheats from filing false tax returns.

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