President Obama announced an overhaul of the tax code to “detect and pursue” U.S tax evaders and go after their offshore tax shelters.
The President’s two-part plan calls for nearly 800 new IRS agents to enforce the U.S. tax code – and help wage war against multi-national corps and their offshore tax havens.
Under the current tax code, companies with operations overseas pay U.S. taxes only if they bring the profits back
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Danny Pang, and Orange County money manager, was  arrested on suspicion of evading currency reporting laws. According to the Los Angeles Times, Pang is accused of bilking investors of hundreds of millions of dollars and has allegedly sought to hide more than $300,000 in cash from the government.
On Monday, Pang’s assets and those of his Irvine company, Private Equity Management Group Inc., were frozen at the request of the
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QUESTION: Some of my income is paid to me in cash.  If I do not report all of it, will the penalty be a fine?
Answer: Whether you underreport some, most, or all of your income, the penalties are severe!  Do not think that the IRS will fine you and that is it!  The IRS will consider you a tax cheat and you will be guilty of tax evasion, even
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Daniel L. French, of Akron, Ohio, was charged with three counts of attempting to evade his personal income taxes and two counts filing false income tax returns for a solely-owned corporation he operated in Macedonia, Ohio.
The first two counts allege French filed false returns for the years 2002 and 2003, which  listed deductions for corporate payments that were in fact disbursements for personal benefit.  These disbursements are alleged to be
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Mark J. Zokle, 43, of Sandusky, Ohio, was charged with failing to file federal income tax returns on $2.4 million in income. The information alleges that in 2001, 2002 and 2003, Zokle worked as an independent sales representative for TEMO Sunrooms, of Clinton Township, Mich., and earned commission income of $862,463.89, $756,980.77, and $794,067.64, respectively, in those years but failed to file tax returns.
I’ve blogged about failing to file income
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Thomas E. Cowan Jr., 64, of Elizabethton, Tennessee, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on one count of income tax evasion and three counts of failure to file income tax returns.
According to the indictment, Cowan, an attorney, attempted to evade a large part of the income and self-employment taxes, penalties and interest due to the United States for tax years 1993 to 1997. The indictment alleges that Cowan
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I recently blogged about how frivolous arguments topped the IRS Dirty Dozen list of most common tax schemes. And in this bad economy, there will be more individuals maintaining frivolous arguments for not paying their taxes.
While many Americans were paying their taxes on April 15, there’s a group of citizens known as tax defiers, deniers or protesters who cite many different reasons refusing to pay their income taxes.
Their frivolous arguments
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Internal documents reveal IRS has made offshore tax evasion its highest-priority target; investigators will focus on unreported income
By Michael Rozbruch
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The memo sent to examination staff of the Internal Revenue Service was clear.
Investigators should make sure offshore tax cases “receive priority treatment.”
Indeed, internal documents released by the tax-collecting agency, coupled with public comments from IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, leave little doubt the government will focus the brunt of its enforcement efforts
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John C. Gedekoh III of Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh on charges of filing false tax returns.
According to the indictment, Gedekoh knowingly filed false federal income tax returns for the years 2002 to 2005 by understating his gross receipts by $223,161.81. The IRS Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation leading to the indictment in this case.
If convicted, Gedekoh faces up to 12 years
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The owner of Factory Direct Modular Homes in Brick, N.J., pleaded guilty to tax charges for under reporting the business’ income for tax years 2002 and 2003 by about $406,000.
Janice Pfefferkorn, 54, who also went by the name Janice Morton, pleaded guilty to a two-count Information charging her with two counts of filing a false federal tax return.
According to court records, as a broker for a modular home manufacture, Pfefferkorn
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In attempts to close the tax gap, the IRS is increasing tax compliance and aggressively taking action against tax cheats and tax promoters. As the tax gap grows, more Americans than ever will be facing audits and the IRS will be re-asserting it’s position on individuals who maintain frivolous arguments for not paying their taxes.
CCH (http://tax.cchgroup.com/) reports:
Sanctions were properly imposed on an individual who advanced a frivolous argument that he was not
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Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Obama’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services, did not pay $7,040 in taxes between 2005 and 2007. She paid the back taxes and penalty after they were identified.
In addition to Sebelius, five other Obama administration nominees have come under fire for unpaid taxes including Tom Daschle and Timothy F. Geithner. Labor secretary Hilda L. Solis  had to answer questions about $6,400 in
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Sharon Brown-Acklin, 36, of Hamilton, Ala., was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison for 27 counts of preparing false tax returns. In addition, Brown-Acklin will serve one year of supervised release and was ordered to pay $79,832 in restitution to the IRS. Brown-Acklin’s use of false information, including filing status and inflated deductions, resulted in $252,123 of improperly claimed deductions and exemptions.
I’ve blogged about tax evasion before.
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Bloomberg News columnist John M. Berry makes some interesting points regarding President Obama’s new task force created to close the tax gap by focusing on closing loopholes, streamlining tax code and generating revenue.
“It may not accomplish much,” he says.
Highlights from the article include:
With April 15 fast approaching, stronger enforcement and a lot more resources for the Internal Revenue Service should head the administration’s to-do list.
The tax code could be undoubtedly
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In a blow to tax cheats, Switzerland’s largest bank agrees to divulge the names of those suspect of using offshore accounts to evade U.S. taxes
By Michael Rozbruch
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In the world of tax cheats, the news doesn’t get much bigger.
UBS, the largest bank in Switzerland, agreed to provide to the U.S. government with the names of those it suspects of using its accounts to evade paying taxes in the United States. The
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