Tennessee criminal defense attorneys will rarely have clients as outspoken as self-proclaimed “queen” of tax refund fraud Rashia Wilson. Wilson was sentenced earlier this week to 21 years in federal prison for tax fraud, aggravated identity theft, and weapons charges. Wilson, a 27-year-old resident of Tampa, Florida, admitted to stealing in excess of $3 million

Detroit, Michigan, Pizza Restaurant owner Happy Asker is most likely unhappy after the Justice Department indicted him and several others earlier for federal tax violations related to his business, Happy’s Pizza. Michigan-based Happy’s Pizza grew into a thriving business with 100 franchises across six states. After a three-year investigation of the business, Happy along with

Taxpayers have lost more than $1 million this year in a scam where telephone callers are impersonating Internal Revenue Service officials. The impersonators are calling taxpayers and telling them they owe the IRS money and request payment via phone using a prepaid debit/credit card or wire transfer. If the caller balks at making the payment

As the hit show Breaking Bad comes to an end, Forbes ran an interesting article on the tax implications of illegal activities as it relates to the hit show. The author highlights a few problems that arise when conducting illegal transactions, including: Illegal income is still considered taxable income by the IRS. Regardless of the

Mark Goldberg, (pictured below) a tax return preparer from the Bronx in New York City, pled guilty to tax fraud last month. In the indictment Goldberg was charged with 40 counts of willfully and/or knowingly inflating tax deductions for his clients, 4 counts of filing fraudulent returns of his own, 1 count of obstruction of

A growing area of tax fraud is originating from staffing companies and PEO’s (Professional Employer Organizations) who withhold taxes from their workers and fail to turn the withheld funds over to the IRS. A case earlier this month resulted in a former owner of such a company receiving a 51-month prison sentence for committing such

As I have written about previously, tax return preparers can face both civil and criminal penalties for preparing false or fraudulent tax returns. One such tax return preparer company, Mo’ Money Taxes, is now dealing with a civil injunction lawsuit, which was filed against them in Nashville by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Middle Tennessee,

The Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Justice have made it clear that they are turning up the heat on tax return preparers who submit fraudulent or false tax returns. Tax return preparer fraud has consistently been listed on the IRS’ list of “Dirty Dozen Tax Scams.” The IRS states that “tax return preparer