In a move which should send shivers through the spines of delinquent FBAR (Foreign Bank Account Report) filers the Swiss Federal Supreme Court has granted the IRS’ request for the names of U.S persons holding “secret” Swiss bank accounts. The IRS had originally submitted a so-called group request in September…
The U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii recently acquitted an 87-year-old auto dealership mogul of all tax fraud and conspiracy charges that the U.S. Government had brought against him. James Pflueger, who was facing multiple counts of both tax fraud and conspiracy to defraud the government, had been…
The 6th Circuit recently taught an expensive lesson to a Michigan couple about carefully following procedure when dealing with tax problems and subsequent loss of their $64,000 refund occurred because of a seeming minor error. Following an IRS tax dispute began, as the IRS’ records stated that the envelope containing…
After being convicted of criminal tax fraud and serving 18 months in federal prison, a prominent former California tax attorney recently found himself again the subject of an IRS investigation into his alleged tax fraud. After a criminal tax case that culminated in Owen G. Fiore’s guilty plea to tax…
Last year the IRS announced an alternative to its Offshore Voluntary Compliance Program (OVDP) which was being made available to a limited group of non-resident individuals who failed to file Foreign Bank Account Reports (FBARs) on Form TDF 90-22.1. Our tax lawyers blogged about the Streamlined Program previously, taking a…
Many people have the preconceived notion that used car salesmen are less than scrupulous and Mohammad Jafar Nikbakht didn’t do anything to help that stereotype. Late last year in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, Mohammad Nikbakht aka Freydoon Nikbakht was sentenced to 15 months…
In a criminal tax case last year the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upheld the conviction of a man for willful failure to pay the employment taxes of his healthcare staffing business. U.S. v. McClain (8th Cir. 2011). In United States v. Francis Leroy McLain, No.…
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that offshore bank account records sought in a tax evasion. The IRS already knew based upon records it received from UBS that the witness held offshore bank accounts. To lay people, and even to most tax attorneys this was a startling result. Actually…
San Diego tax attorney Scott Waage was enjoined from preparing tax returns or giving tax advice pursuant to an injunction entered by a federal district court. The injunction had been sought by the Department of Justice in a complaint filed in the Southern District of California pursuant to Internal Revenue…
When American billionaire Igor Olenicoff opened his offshore bank account with Swiss bank UBS, AG he was allegedly told he did not have to file Form TD F 90-22.1, or Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts Report, more commonly known as an FBAR, or pay taxes on the $180 million he…