Under the Bank Secrecy Act, $10,000 is the threshold amount for triggering various reporting requirements for cash transactions. The law is supposed to deter money laundering by big-time drug dealers, organized crime figures or terrorist groups. Far too often, however, federal authorities accuse ordinary citizens of “structuring” their transactions, i.e., […]
Category: Tax Crimes
One of the threads we’ve been following in this blog is the effect of IRS budget cuts on tax enforcement. It’s widely known that the overall number of audits is down. But what about criminal investigations? Nearly a year ago, we noted that despite the budget problems caused by a […]
The Fifth Amendment protects an individual from being forced to incriminate himself or herself, often referred to as “pleading the fifth.” In the past, some have unsuccessfully attempted to assert the Fifth Amendment as a reason to avoid filing tax returns, or to file tax returns that don’t report any […]
The IRS continues to struggle with budget cuts, but it is far from toothless. In fact, the agency recently began using nasty new tools that can track cell phone location data by mimicking cell towers. These tools are called “stringrays” or cell-site simulators. Last week, the IRS commissioner went before […]
Financial crimes such as fraud, money laundering or violations of the Bank Secrecy Act do not necessarily relate directly to tax law. Why then is the Criminal Investigation division of the IRS involved in enforcing these laws? In this two-part post, we will address that question. In part one, we […]
The federal tax code is voluminous. There are seemingly innumerable, highly detailed sections that taxpayers and tax professionals can run afoul of. The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and other recent laws have only added to the sprawling complexity of the tax code and the burden of complying with […]
The Department of Justice has unsealed a 47 count indictment against 14 individuals related to allegations of FIFA corruption, including charges of tax fraud, money laundering, wire fraud, and racketeering. As part of the alleged conspiracy spanning 25 years, the co-conspirators used false consulting agreements to disguise the illicit payment […]
IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) released its annual report, which details statistics for the 2014 calendar year, as well as its current enforcement priorities. The report yielded some interesting findings. As expected, the budget cuts that have afflicted the IRS have also affected CI, with the overall number of investigations initiated […]
Two former Credit Suisse bankers have received extraordinarily light sentences after pleading guilty and cooperating with the Department of Justice in its case against the Swiss Bank. Josef Dörig and Andreas Bachmann were each sentenced to five years’ probation and a fine, sentences that are substantially lower than the recommendations […]
The sheer complexity of the U.S. tax code causes many taxpayers to seek assistance from a paid tax return preparer. Most preparers do a creditable job. Many do outstanding work. But the IRS has long been concerned about incompetent or untrustworthy preparers. The concern is that such preparers can harm […]