Monthly Archives: June 2021

According to the DoJ, a Texas attorney and former member of the Idaho legislature, John O. Green, and his client, Texas inventor Thomas Selgas, were sentenced yesterday for conspiracy to defraud the United States and tax evasion. 

Selgas and Green were convicted by a jury in Federal District Court in Dallas on Jan. 15, 2020. According to the evidence presented at trial, Selgas conspired with Green, an attorney licensed to practice in Texas, to defraud the United States by obstructing the IRS’s efforts to assess and collect Selgas’s taxes. 

Selgas and his wife owed approximately $1.1 million in taxes that Selgas refused to pay. When the IRS sought to collect those taxes, Selgas concealed, with the assistance of Green, substantial funds by using Green’s Interest on Lawyers Trust Account (IOLTA) rather than using financial accounts in Selgas’s own name. 

An IOLTA is an escrow bank account used by a lawyer to hold money in trust for clients. 

From 2007 to 2017, Selgas deposited proceeds from the sale of gold coins and other income into Green’s IOLTA. At the direction of Selgas, Green would then use that escrow account to pay the personal expenses of Selgas and his wife, including their credit card bills. 

This use of the IOLTA concealed Selgas’s income from the IRS and thwarted its ability to identify funds he possessed, which could be used to offset the taxes owed. 

Selgas and Green also filed a false tax return on behalf of MyMail Ltd., an intellectual property development and licensing partnership Selgas co-founded, omitting a substantial portion of the partnership’s actual income. 

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer ordered Selgas to serve three (3) years of supervised release and to pay approximately $1,323,776.92 in restitution to the United States. 

Judge Scholer ordered Green to serve three (3) years of supervised release and to pay approximately $679,501.50 in restitution to the United States. 

Have a Criminal Tax Problem?

Read more at: Tax Times blog

The IRS has released details of its fiscal year 2022 (FY 2022) budget request. The request is for $13.16 billion, which is $1.24 billion (10.4%) more than the FY 2021 enacted level of $11.92 billion.

The request includes the following:

1. Putting taxpayers first. ($176.09 million and an additional 294 full time employees (FTE)) This investment includes: $27 million to add increased security and flexibilities to how the IRS identity proofs and authenticates taxpayers to allow secure access to taxpayer online services such as Identity Protection (IP) PINs in accordance with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards; and $149.09 million to develop and implement a Taxpayer Experience Strategy to improve the American taxpayer's experience with the IRS through expanded digital services, increased multilingual services, and an increased presence in hard to reach communities.

2. Ensure fairness of the tax system. ($340.27 million, +1,833 FTE) Highlights of this investment include:

• $154.87 million to increase the audit coverage rate of large corporations (with balance sheet assets > $10 million), pass through entities, and high wealth individuals with adjusted gross income of more than $10 million. Currently, this audit rate is half of what it was in FY 2010-2010;
• $41.09 million to expand oversight of cyber-crimes and allow for applied data analytics which IRS can leverage to connect the most remote financial transaction between apparent disparate actors which can be the key piece of evidence to break open the most complex financial investigation;
• $13.47 million to enhance taxpayer confidence in the tax-exempt sector which is essential to preserving and protecting charitable tax deductions and the retirement savings of everyday Americans;
• $32.90 million to addresses pre-refund audit coverage;
• $77.06 million for additional examination and collection employees to increase the individual audit and collection coverage rates; and
• $20.87 million to enhance overall enforcement efforts, increase the number of convictions and expand the IRS's capabilities in core tax enforcement areas.

    3. Improve live assistance. ($318 million, +4,203 FTE).

    4. IT modernization. ($78.14 million, +18 FTE).

    5. Electrical vehicles. ($2.96 million, +0 FTE).

Like Your Freedom?

 Contact the Tax Lawyers at

Marini & Associates, P.A. 

for a FREE Tax HELP Contact us at:
www.TaxAid.com or www.OVDPLaw.com
or Toll Free at 888 8TAXAID (888-882-9243) 

Read more at: Tax Times blog

The court declined to address the current US government’s request for a stay of action and remanded the matter to the Department of Homeland Security. The court stated: 

“While There Would Certainly Be Some Disruption
If The Rule Is Vacated Given The Length of Time
The Rule Has Been In Effect, The Government Has
Made No Specific Showing of Harm Beyond
Asserting That It Would Be ‘Extraordinarily Disruptive’.”

On the other hand, the court also declined to grant the Plaintiff’s injunction barring USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) from reinstating the EB-5 Modernization Rule absent compliance with the rule-making process governed by the Administrative Procedures Act. 

It is possible that USCIS will appeal the decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. It is also likely that Secretary Mayorkas will now seek to finalise the EB-5 Modernization Rule, but until then the old minimum investment amounts apply and revert back to $500,000 if in a Targeted Employment Area (TEA), otherwise $1m, and Targeted Employment Area standards go back to pre-November 2019.

You can view the case judgment HERE

Coming to America?

 

 

Need Pre-Immigration Tax Advice?

  Contact the Tax Lawyers at
Marini & Associates, P.A. 

 

 for a FREE Tax Consultation Contact US at

www.TaxAid.com or www.OVDPLaw.com

or Toll Free at 888-8TaxAid (888 882-9243). 

Read more at: Tax Times blog

In Audit Report No. 2021-30-033, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has called on IRS to improve its procedures related to the collection of assessed criminal restitution in tax-related cases. 

According To The Audit, During Fiscal Years 2016 Through 2020, Defendants Were Ordered To Pay More Than $2.7 Billion In Criminal Restitution To IRS But Paid Only $844 Million
(Or 31%) During That Same Period.

"TIGTA found that in cases for which the IRS had the authority to assess the restitution ordered, a higher percentage of restitution was paid," the audit said.

TIGTA suggested ways to ensure that the restitution ordered is properly assessed. For example, IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) should be certain that it always sends closing documents to the Small Business/Self-Employed (SB/SE) Division for the assessment of restitution. Furthermore, the division must correctly assess interest and penalties on all restitution-based assessments.

"TIGTA also found that a lack of resources within CI and the SB/SE Division contributed to the IRS not being able to adequately monitor defendants' compliance with the conditions of probation or supervised release," the audit said. Bolstering those resources would be a positive step for IRS to take, TIGTA suggested.

In addition, TIGTA found that internal controls could be improved to prevent IRS from issuing erroneous refunds for restitution payments, the audit noted.

Have IRS Tax Problems?

     Contact the Tax Lawyers at

Marini & Associates, P.A. 

for a FREE Tax HELP Contact us at:
www.TaxAid.com or www.OVDPLaw.com
or Toll Free at 888 8TAXAID (888-882-9243) 

Read more at: Tax Times blog