Tax Evasion

The United States government recognizes that unreported foreign assets translate to lost revenue. Various efforts are made in an attempt to recoup some of these losses. Three examples include: Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). As noted in a recent piece in HuffPost, one of the main tools used by the government to gather information […]

The investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election has led to allegations of United States tax violations. One example is the recent indictment of President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. Mr. Manafort is accused of using shell companies to hide assets and avoid tax obligations. As noted in a […]

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is in the midst of a lawsuit against cryptocurrency provider Coinbase. The agency is attempting to gain information about those who use Coinbase, claiming that there is a high likelihood that these users are guilty of various tax crimes. What is the basis for these allegations? The agency supports these […]

Even expats have certain tax obligations. A failure to meet these obligations can result in a range of penalties. Depending on the details of the issue, penalties can include fines or even criminal charges and revocation of your U.S. passport. Examples of common mistakes: Due to the severity of penalties tied to tax issues, expats […]

The financial world is evolving. This is not the first time the economy has shifted its focus. The focus has shifted in the past from one that depends on gold as currency to paper dollars to credit cards. The shift is now moving to the novel world of digital currency. With every change in economic […]

In terms of sheer revenue generated, limited-amnesty programs for noncompliance with offshore reporting requirements has been tremendously successful for the IRS. Since the IRS started these initiatives in 2009, the amount of revenue generated in fines, penalties and back taxes is upwards of $10 billion. Many questions remain, however, about the main limited-amnesty program, the […]

Every year, millions of taxpayers receive a computer-generated notice from the IRS about (supposedly) underreported income. These notices are called CP2000 or automated underreporting (AUR) notices. They are generated (shall we say “spit out”?) by IRS computers based on a mismatch between the income reported on a taxpayer’s return and information available to the IRS […]

A Hall-of-Fame first baseman has received a pardon from President Obama for making a grave tax error. The error was committed by Willie McCovey, an elite homerun hitter who played for the San Francisco Giants in for 18 years. More than 20 years ago, McCovey failed to report income from appearances at baseball card and […]

It’s been 85 years since the IRS took down Al Capone. Other law enforcement agencies had sought to prosecute the famed gangster for murder, extortion and host of other crimes. But it was the IRS that put him in prison, on a charge of tax evasion. After so long, the Capone case might seem as […]

Let’s continue our discussion of the consequences of the disclosure last spring of a massive series of documents on foreign tax shelters known as the Panama Papers. The documents cast a harsh light on tax avoidance or evasion strategies used by the very rich. In part one of this post, we noted that the European […]