Congratulations and good luck to TaxMasters! Earlier this week, TaxMasters, Inc. received its stock trading symbol and is now officially a publicly traded company.
As the CEO of the only certified national firm of tax problem resolution specialists, I would like to extend my congratulations to them. This event is indeed a milestone for the tax relief industry as a whole and is a sign of the times that more
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Although there never was a “good” time to cheat on taxes, now is worse than ever for taxpayers and tax preparers to file fraudulent tax returns. With the IRS getting more funding and 800 more agents to collect taxes, taxpayers and CPAs who deliberately report fraudulent information on tax returns will be hit with severe IRS penalties.
If the IRS detects and proves beyond a reasonable doubt that fraudulence was deliberate,
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With the new surge in IRS enforcements, you could find yourself in serious IRS trouble if your tax returns are falsified—even if you hired someone else to file your taxes for you. Be careful about signing your tax returns to ensure that you will not be audited and penalized for false returns prepared by someone else.
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Question: I just received a letter from Maine Revenue Commission asking me to file amended
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A Michigan gas station owner was found guilty of three counts of filing a false tax return after a five-day bench trial.
According to court records, from 1999 to 2001, Yousef Safiedine, 60, of Farmington Hills, owned a gas station in Dearborn, Mich., which he leased to a family member. He received monthly payments from either JLJ Enterprises or MTK Family Investments and reported only a portion of the rental income,
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After federal prosecutors in filed a criminal complaint against a businessman that alleges he skimmed more than $500,000 from his company, the Dawsonville, Ga., man pleaded guilty to evasion but disputed the amount of taxes evaded.
Robert Merickle, 59, allegedly filed a false tax return in 2001, which failed to report substantial amounts of income from a company he owned and operated, Blue Haven Pools.
According to court records, Merickle spent more
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Maria Rullo, 45, of New Fairfield, Conn., was sentenced to 30 days in federal prison for filing a false tax return. According to court documents, Rullo failed to report alimony income and certain other income on personal tax returns she filed with the IRS. In all, Rullo agreed to pay over $30,000 to the IRS for material omissions to her returns filed for the 2001 to 2004 tax years. 

Snezana Berbic, 39, of Wethersfield, Conn., was sentenced to 12 months and one day of in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, after Bernic pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement on a federal individual income tax return and one count of assisting another person in the preparation of a false federal individual income tax return.

Robert N. Shearburn Sr., 66, of Washougal, Wash., and formerly of Glendale, Ariz., was sentenced to 12 months in prison after pleading guilty to filing a false tax return.Shearburn admitted he had signed and filed a tax return for the year 2000 that he knew contained materially false information. Shearburn stated that he filed the U.S. Individual Income Tax Return that falsely reported his adjusted gross income was $58,806, his
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Former IRS agent Ronald C. Heidel, 60, of Sanibel, Fla., received 18 months in prison to be followed by one year of supervised release for making false statements on his and his wife’s joint tax return for the year 2001. Heidel was also ordered to pay a fine of $30,000 and $135,236 in restitution to the IRS.According to court records, Heidel worked as a revenue agent for the IRS from
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Following an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, Michael and Jan Watts pleaded guilty to one count of filing a false tax return.Michael Watts, 60, and Jan Watts, 54, formerly of San Martin, were charged with one count of income tax evasion. In a superseding information, prosecutors also charged the Watts with one count of filing a false tax return.
Under the plea agreement, the Watts pleaded guilty to
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Connecticut cosmetic surgeon Teresita Mascardo, 59, was sentenced to five years of probation, the first four months of which she must spend confined to her home with electronic monitoring. Mascardo pleaded guilty to one count of making and subscribing a false income tax return. Mascardo skimmed income from her company, resulting in a total tax deficiency of $17,206 tax loss for the year 2000.

Robert N. Shearburn Sr., 66, of Washougal, Wash., and formerly of Glendale, Ariz., was sentenced to 12 months in prison after pleading to Making and Subscribing to Materially False Tax Return.Shearburn admitted he had signed and filed a tax return for the year 2000 that he knew contained materially false information. He admitted that when he filed the 2000 tax return, he knew that his income and tax due and
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Robert N. Shearburn, Sr., 66, of Washougal, Washington, and formerly of Glendale, Ariz., was sentenced to 12 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to making and subscribing to a materially false tax return.Shearburn admitted he had signed and filed a tax return for the year 2000 that he knew contained false information. Shearburn said he filed the U.S. Individual Income Tax Return that falsely reported his adjusted gross income
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Ronald Dean Wells was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and making false claims stemming from a false tax refund scheme he operated from Ohio prisons.According to the charges, Wells obtained the names and Social Security numbers of other prisoners, in most cases without their knowledge, which he used to prepare false tax returns claiming tax refunds in their names based on fictitious wages and tax withholdings. In
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Gerald P. Mercadel, 46, of New Orleans, La., was charged in a five-count indictment with aiding and abetting the filing of false individual income tax returns.According to the indictment, from April 2001 to May 2002, Mercadel assisted taxpayers in preparing tax returns along with accompanying schedules, which misrepresented the taxpayers were entitled to certain deductions or income relating to fictitious businesses.
If convicted, Mercadel faces up to ten years in prison
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