Posts Tagged ‘Tax Crime’
What Punishment Will I Receive If I Am Found Guilty of a Federal Tax Crime?
The answer to the question posed in the title of this blog varies depending on a variety of factors, one of which is the “Tax Table” contained in Section 2T4.1 of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. The Guidelines are advisory only, and there are other factors which a sentencing judge must consider.
The Tax Table can be helpful to assist in determining a potential range of punishment that a judge may consider when sentencing a taxpayer convicted of committing a tax crime. The table below shows which “offense level” fits based on the amount of “tax loss,” which in and of itself is a sometimes difficult concept to understand. To analyze where you fit on the Sentencing Guidelines, determine the amount of Tax Loss and find your corresponding Offense Level on the chart below.
Tax Guidelines
§2T4.1. Tax Table
Tax Loss (Apply the Greatest) Offense Level
(A) $2,000 or less 6
(B) More than $2,000 8
(C) More than $5,000 10
(D) More than $12,500 12
(E) More than $30,000 14
(F) More than $80,000 16
(G) More than $200,000 18
(H) More than $400,000 20
(I) More than $1,000,000 22
(J) More than $2,500,000 24
(K) More than $7,000,000 26
(L) More than $20,000,000 28
(M) More than $50,000,000 30
(N) More than $100,000,000 32
(O) More than $200,000,000 34
(P) More than $400,000,000 36.
Once you have determined your Offense Level, review the Sentencing Table below:
U.S. Sentencing Guidelines
The Sentencing Guidelines are only one factor that a sentencing judge will consider before he/she sentences a convicted tax defendant. An experienced criminal defense attorney can be essential in developing your best approach at a sentencing hearing. To contact an attorney today to discuss how your actions may impact your range of punishment, contact Norman D. McKellar today at 877-4-TAX-SOS.
Woman Pretends to be IRS Agent & Receives “Discount” at Hotel for 2 Years
A California woman claiming to be an IRS agent may ultimately get what she was seeking: free room & board. Sadly, she may be resting in a federal detention facility instead of a comfy hotel.
Novato hotel wants IRS imposter to pay $55,000 tab – San Jose Mercury News
NOVATO — A woman who pretended to be an IRS agent while living at a Novato hotel is now being sued for an unpaid tab of $55,000.
Inn Marin filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against Sherry Lynn Vertoch, a former long-term guest at the Ignacio hotel. The lawsuit was filed in Marin Superior Court on Friday, the day after Vertoch pleaded guilty to impersonating a federal officer.
Vertoch, 64, faces up to three years in prison when she is sentenced April 20 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. She remains in federal custody.
Authorities said Vertoch often stayed at the hotel for short periods from 2002 to 2008, usually paying in cash. But then she embarked on a two-year occupancy without paying her bills, according to court documents.
Authorities said Vertoch repeatedly stalled payment by telling the hotel staff that she was an IRS agent working on an extended investigation. She allegedly promised she would forward the hotel invoices to her superiors at the IRS, when in fact she never worked for the tax agency.
Former U.S. Attorney Pleads Guilty to Failure to File Income Tax Returns
A Beaumont attorney who spent more than a decade in the U.S. Attorney’s Office before going into private practice faces up to one year in federal prison and up to a $100,000 fine following a guilty plea Monday morning to once count of failure to file income tax returns.
According to the Justice Department, Olen Kenneth Dodd, 58, admitted that he knowingly failed to file income tax returns for calendar years 2002-2005 despite receiving gross income of: $373,931.60 in 2002; $267,735.00 in 2003; and, approximately $120,000.00 in both 2004 and 2005. The court hasn’t set a sentencing date.
Justice Department spokesman Daryl Fields told The Associated Press that Dodd “has already provided money to the IRS to satisfy the taxes that he owes.”
Dodd worked for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of Texas for about 13 years and handled primarily civil cases. He was based in Beaumont and opened a law firm here in 2000 after he left the U.S. Attorney’s Office to go into private practice.
If you have failed to file your federal tax returns, please contact Norman D. McKellar to discuss how best to protect yourself. Call 877-4-TAX-SOS today or visit www.TaxCrimeAttorney.com for more information.
Another Tax Return Preparer is Indicted
The Department of Justice has recently increased its efforts to crackdown on fraudulent tax return preparers. As a result, the number of indictments against tax return preparers is increasing dramatically. If you are being investigated for preparing or filing a false tax return, call attorney Norman D. McKellar today at 1-877-4-TAX-SOS or visit www.TaxCrimeAttorney.com.
Northern District of Alabama Press Release
BIRMINGHAM – A federal grand jury today indicted a Moody woman for filing false tax returns, U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and IRS Special Agent in Charge, Criminal Investigations, Reginael D. McDaniel announced.
The 28-count indictment, filed in U.S. District Court, charges that LATOSHA SHURON MADISON, 38, prepared tax returns for several individuals for 2003 and 2004 and claimed deductions for items and amounts the taxpayers were not entitled to claim.
The maximum sentence for filing false tax returns is three years in prison and a $100,000 fine for each count.
“Tax preparers need to be certain they are preparing accurate, honest tax returns,” Vance said. “Those who intentionally defraud the IRS will be prosecuted.”
Don’t Blog About Your Law-Breaking Ways
We’ve posted numerous times about the idiocy of posting incriminating items online. Allegedly, Marla Stevens did not heed our advice and decided to brag via her blog of her tax evasion exploits. I’m sure the Department of Justice enjoyed reading her insights.
Marla Stevens once bragged about how she and her spouse, Phyllis, violated federal tax laws.
“We won’t lie about our marriage on our tax forms, either, filing as the married people we are,” Marla Stevens wrote on a blog in September 2005. “We’ve racked up about a million dollars in potential criminal fines and about a hundred years in potential prison time under the old sentencing guidelines between us – so far.”
Now, the two really face major tax trouble.
A federal grand jury has indicted the two women on five charges of income tax evasion and conspiracy, as well as filing false tax returns, U.S. Attorney Nicholas Klinefeld said in a news release Thursday.
Phyllis Stevens, 58, already has been indicted on 20 counts of money laundering, wire fraud, identity theft and computer fraud for allegedly embezzling nearly $6 million from Aviva USA, an insurance company.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of 336 years in prison and $6.7 million in fines if she is convicted on all counts.
Marla Stevens, 58, has been accused of conspiring with Phyllis Stevens to launder money and spend some of the stolen money. If convicted on all counts, the maximum penalty would be 61 years in prison and $1.95 million in fines.
In her September 2005 blog entry, Marla Stevens was referring to the controversy about the couple’s tax returns, and the fact that the federal government doesn’t allow gay married couples to file joint returns.
The federal government doesn’t recognize same-sex marriage under the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
Marla and Phyllis Stevens have said they were married in Toronto, Ontario, in 2005.
The new indictment accuses Phyllis Stevens of filing false income tax statements in 2003, 2004 and 2006, and failing to report $1.6 million that had been embezzled from Aviva.
In addition, she is accused of filing a false tax return in the name of a person used in the embezzlement of funds. She is also accused of tax evasion for failing to report $300,000 in income on a 2008 tax return that had been prepared but never filed.
Marla Stevens is charged with filing false income tax statements with her spouse in 2004 and 2006. The charges also say their 2006 tax return, which failed to report $793,631, attempted to hide the embezzled money by claiming that Marla Stevens operated an insurance agency.
A federal trial for the two women is set for May.
Meanwhile, Phyllis Stevens’ attorney, William Kutmus, has disclosed in court files that his client has been diagnosed with multiple personality disorder.
Another Tennessee Couple Facing Tax Evasion Charges
U.S. Department of Justice – United States Attorney’s Office, TNWD
Jackson, TN – Daniel and Lori Gray, of Friendship, Tennessee, have been charged with two counts of income tax evasion on February 16, 2010 announced Lawrence J. Laurenzi, United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee. Each faces a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 on each count, if convicted. Both defendants turned themselves in today and had their initial appearance in federal court. Their next scheduled court date is for Arraignment on March 1, 2010.
According to the indictment, Daniel and Lori Gray filed joint tax returns for 2003 and 2004 with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). These returns claimed negative taxable income of $9,918 and $6,888 for 2003 and 2004, respectively. The indictment alleges that when they filed these returns they knew and believed that their taxable income for those years was substantially in excess of the amount they declared on their returns.
This investigation was conducted by IRS Criminal Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Leigh Grinalds is handling the case for the government.
The McKellar Law Firm, PLLC Is Now Listed with Nationwide Directory of Criminal Defense Attorneys
The McKellar Law Firm, PLLC, is pleased to announce that it is listed in the Nationwide Directory of Criminal Defense Attorneys, which can be found here.
The lawyers at The McKellar Law Firm, PLLC, handle a variety of criminal defense cases, including tax crimes, tax fraud, tax evasion, white collar crimes, fraud, embezzlement, structuring, failure to file, tax return preparer fraud, bank fraud, mortgage fraud, drug crimes, gun crimes, corporate espionage, DUI, assault, robbery, sex crimes, statutory rape, murder, possession, and any other federal or state crimes throughout Tennessee. In regards to tax and white collar crimes, our practice is nationwide.
Contact us today at 865-566-0125 or 877-4-TAX-SOS for a FREE consultation.
Man Arrested in Alleged $1.1 Billion Tax Scheme Linked to Wesley Snipes
When you help defraud the government out of a billion or so dollars, they tend to take notice. Sadly for Stephen C. Hunter, the Government also did not appreciate having to hunt him down for the past two months. Hunter was allegedly part of American Rights Litigators, which is the group that was linked to convicted tax criminal Wesley Snipes. According to the article below, American Rights Litigators sold “tax defiance schemes,” which probably should have been Snipes and other ARL clients’ first clue that their products may not be legit.
ATLANTA (AP) — Federal agents have arrested a fugitive employee of a company that prosecutors say helped Wesley Snipes and dozens of other clients dodge more than $1.1 billion in taxes, ending a two-month search, officials said Thursday.
Stephen C. Hunter was arrested at his son’s home in Columbus, Ga. on Tuesday, two months after he skipped a November court date to face federal charges that he conspired to defraud the government, said U.S. Marshals spokesman Daniel Winfield.
Hunter worked in the research department of American Rights Litigators, a company that purported to help members legally avoid paying taxes by selling “tax defiance schemes,” according to federal prosecutors. A telephone call to Ed Sussman, who is listed as Hunter’s attorney, was not immediately returned.
The 2008 trial against Snipes, the star of the “Blade” trilogy, helped illuminate the company’s strategy, which prosecutors said was aimed at interfering with the IRS. Snipes got involved in 2000 after meeting Eddie Ray Kahn, the company’s founder, and he soon stopped filing tax returns, prosecutors said.
Snipes, who was a dues-paying member of the organization, was sentenced to three years in prison in April 2008 after he was convicted of three counts of willfully failing to file returns for three years, in which the government said he owed $2.7 million. Snipes asked a federal appeals panel in November to review the “unreasonable” sentence.
Russian Prosecutor Thinks Financial Crimes Shouldn’t Be Crimes
Bloomberg.com has an interesting story about Russian Prosecutor Alexander Bastrykin, who believes that Russia should stop punishing white-collar and tax crimes with prison sentences. I’m pretty sure we won’t ever hear a U.S. prosecutor ever echo these sentiments. Excerpts from the article are below.
Russia Must Soften Law on White-Collar Crime, Prosecutor Says – BusinessWeek
Russia Must Soften Law on White-Collar Crime, Prosecutor Says
January 26, 2010, 07:07 AM EST
More From BusinessweekBy Lucian Kim
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) — Russia should stop punishing white- collar crime with prison sentences and update legislation to prevent a “subjective” application of laws, said Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General’s Office in Moscow.
“One shouldn’t equate murderers and rapists with people who have committed financial crimes,” Bastrykin said in an interview published today in Rossiiskaya Gazeta, the government’s official newspaper. “Gaps in legislation leave a large space for violations or simply subjective discretion on how to apply the law.”
The government can help reduce investment risks by filling holes in legislation drawn up in the 1990s, when Russia was making the transition from communism to capitalism, Bastrykin said.
Russia should consider forming one single agency to counter financial violations based on the Federal Financial Monitoring Service, the government’s money-laundering watchdog, Bastrykin said. Alternatively, it may make sense to form special sub-units in existing ministries and agencies to fight white-collar crime, he said.
Financial crimes that don’t threaten state security or public safety should be removed from the Criminal Code and be punished with fines only, he said. The Criminal Code currently includes about 40 crimes of an economic nature, according to Bastrykin.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, is serving an eight-year sentence in a Siberian penal colony for tax evasion and fraud. Sergei Magnitsky, a tax lawyer for Hermitage Capital Management, died in prison last year while awaiting trial in a tax evasion case.
If you are looking for an aggressive criminal defense lawyer to defend you from accusations of white collar or tax crimes, contact Norman D. McKellar today at 1-877-482-9767.
Failure to File Tax Returns = A Felony?
Many people (lawyers included) operate under the assumption that failure to file a tax return is a misdemeanor. However, the Government does not have to prove much for a misdemeanor failure to file case to evolve into a felony tax evasion case.
In a case arising out of my old stomping grounds in Louisiana, the 5th Circuit, in the case of United States v. Garland Miller, provided us with a refresher course on criminal tax law:
The relevant section of the Internal Revenue Code states:
Any person who willfully attempts in any manner to evade or defeat any tax imposed by this title or the payment thereof shall, in addition to other penalties provided by law, be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $100,000 ($500,000 in the case of a corporation), or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution. 26 U.S.C. § 7201. The elements of a violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7201 are: (1) existence of a tax deficiency; (2) an affirmative act constituting an evasion or an attempted evasion of the tax; and (3) willfulness. United States v. Nolen, 472 F.3d 362, 377 (5th Cir. 2006).
Affirmative acts that satisfy the second element may include keeping double sets of books, concealment of assets, or “any conduct, the likely effect of which would be to mislead or to conceal.” Spies v. United States, 317 U.S. 492, 499 (1943); see also United States v. Robinson, 974 F.2d 575, 577 (5th Cir. 1992).
To prove willfulness, the third element, the government must show that: (1) the law imposed a duty on the defendant; (2) the defendant knew of that duty; and (3) the defendant voluntarily and intentionally violated that duty. Cheek v. United States, 498 U.S. 192, 201 (1990); United States v. Simkanin, 420 F.3d 397, 404 (5th Cir. 2005). The evidence at trial sufficiently demonstrates Miller’s evasion. It is undisputed that he failed to file tax returns for tax years 2000 and 2001, as charged in the indictment. Further, Miller acted affirmatively when he converted payments made to the clinic to cash, money orders, and cashier’s checks. Witnesses testified that Miller’s practice of converting payments made to the clinic made it difficult for the IRS to determine his income. These affirmative acts had the “likely effect of mislead[ing]” the IRS, and precluded the agency from effectively assessing his tax liability. Spies, 317 U.S. at 399; Robinson, 974 F.2d at 577. Moreover, Wolff testified that the Medical Manager software on Miller’s clinic’s computers included double sets of billing records.
There are lots of interesting points addressed by the Court in the Miller case, but I caution potential non-filers/non-payers to pay attention to the language that I placed in bold in the above snippet. Prosecutors are given a lot of discretion in pushing for a felony tax case by the simple language of “any conduct, the likely effect of which would be to mislead or to conceal.”
If you are concerned about a potential criminal tax case being brought against you, please contact an experienced criminal defense and tax attorney today. Contact Norman D. McKellar today toll-free at 1-877-4-TAX-SOS.