According to some sources, Google searches for “emigrating to Canada,” “moving abroad” and “leaving the U.S.” (among others) spiked the night of the first election debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Say what you will about either candidate, the truth remains that this election cycle has been a tumultuous […]
Contentious tax litigation can take a very long time to resolve. For over two years, we’ve been following a complicated fraud and tax evasion case involving two Texas brothers, Charles and Sam Wyly, who set up a series of offshore tax shelters that ran afoul of federal regulators. The twists […]
This past week, news hit the airwaves about a former U.S. Tax Court judge who pleaded guilty to violation of federal tax law. This dramatic story speaks to every taxpayer with the message that anyone of any stature or with any level of education can potentially face criminal tax charges. It also […]
While it’s not against the law to own a foreign bank account, the tax code requires that you disclose it and pay tax on income. Since 2009, the IRS has devoted significant resources to offshore account compliance. A couple years ago, we wrote an article with an update on the […]
Yesterday news broke about the merger of AT & T and Time Warner. The deal is worth a reported $85 billion, so understandably there’s a lot of buzz. There are all sorts of deals, however, involving little media attention but important tax issues. In this post, we will discuss a […]
The wheels of government don’t always grind quickly. But when there is enough momentum and legal direction behind an initiative, they do grind. To be sure, it has taken most of this year for the IRS to organize a program to implement a directive from Congress that private contractors be […]
Like any large organization, federal government agencies often operate in silos. Communication between them is rarely seamless. New tax collections rules show a focus on inter-agency coordination. But how well will these rules really work? Back in an April post, we discussed a rule that would allow the Department of Justice […]
How can you catch up on back taxes? An announcement from the IRS last week could help. If you had too little withheld from your wages or took an early disbursement from a retirement account, you might have a significant tax obligation. Very few have liquid assets sitting around to […]
Avoiding paying taxes that the IRS requires is one of the most common tax crimes in the United States. It’s called tax evasion, and it’s a type of tax fraud that the IRS prosecutes seriously. Of course, there are ways people legally do not pay taxes on certain money, like […]
A San Antonio physician and surgeon is facing 41 months in federal prison after conviction on a complicated scheme to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of quarterly payroll tax payments. The financial maneuvers employed by Dr. Anthony Sertich spanned several years, and involved, among other things, numerous personal and […]