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According the Law360, the D.C. Circuit on May 3, 2024 overturned Farhy v. Commissioner, 160 T.C. No. 6 (2023), which held that the IRS was without the authority to assess the Form 5471 imposed by Internal Revenue Code Section 6038(b). 

Now a three-judge appellate panel found that the Tax Court had wrongly stripped the agency of its power to automatically assess $500,000 in penalties against businessman Alon Farhy, who for eight years failed to report his ownership of Belizean corporations as required by Internal Revenue Code Section 6038(a).

The Tax Court held that the IRS could only collect these penalties through a civil suit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, not through administrative collection methods. However, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit disagreed with the Tax Court’s interpretation. 

The Appellate Court Held That The Text, Structure,
And Function Of Section 6038 Demonstrate That
Congress Authorized The Assessment Of Penalties
Imposed Under Subsection (B).

Congress clearly meant for the reporting violation penalties to be assessable through the IRS' administrative process when lawmakers created them in 1982 under IRC Section 6038(b), the panel said in an opinion authored by Circuit Judge Cornelia T.L. Pillard. 

The court then turned to the long established Reenactment Doctrine and went on to say “It is well established that when Congress revisits a statute giving rise to a longstanding administrative interpretation without pertinent change, the ‘congressional failure to revise or repeal the agency’s interpretation is persuasive evidence that the interpretation is the one intended by Congress.’” ... Since adding subsection (b) in 1982, Congress has amended section 6038 seven times; each time, it has left undisturbed the IRS’s practice of assessing and administratively collecting penalties imposed under section 6038(b). 

The ruling overturned an the April 2023 decision by Tax Court Senior Judge L. Paige Marvel, who found the law didn't explicitly give the agency the collection power. 

"If subsection (b) penalties are that hard to recover, they may not be worth the candle," Judge Pillard said in the opinion. "It would be 'highly anomalous' for Congress to have responded to the identified problem of the underuse of subsection (c) penalties by promulgating a penalty that, while simpler to calculate, is much harder to enforce."

What's more, the panel said, is that Congress spelled out that the new subsection (b) penalty was meant to coordinate with the existing process for enforcement using tax credits in subsection (c), which everyone, including Farhy, agrees are assessable by the IRS administrative process. Splitting the review of penalties springing from the same violation would have "anomalous implications," Judge Pillard said in the opinion.

"Farhy's reading would create parallel and substantively overlapping judicial tracks for determination of twinned penalties for the same noncompliance: federal district court for the subsection (b) penalties, and Tax Court for the subsection (c) penalties," Judge Pillard said.

"We Decline To Adopt A Reading Of Section 6038(B) That Attributes To Congress The Intent To Respond To The 

Problem It Identifies In A Manner That Is Not Only 

Ineffective, But Counterproductive," Judge Pillard Said.

Farhy interpreted the law to mean that a penalty must be explicitly characterized as a tax or designated as assessable through IRS administrative processes elsewhere in the tax code for the government to assess it under IRC Section 6201(a).

The government said the law "covered the waterfront" and a narrower interpretation would result in "absurdities," according to the appellate opinion.

Need To Successfully Contest Form 5471,
5472, 8938, & 3520 Late Filing Penalties?

     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

According to DoJ, an indictment was unsealed on April 30, 2024 charging Roger Ver, an early investor in bitcoins, with mail fraud, tax evasion and filing false tax returns. Ver was arrested this weekend in Spain based on the U.S. criminal charges. The United States will seek Ver’s extradition to stand trial in the United States.

According to the indictment, Ver formerly of Santa Clara, California, owned MemoryDealers.com Inc. and Agilestar.com Inc., two companies that sold computer and networking equipment. Starting in 2011, Ver allegedly began acquiring bitcoins for himself and his companies. He also allegedly avidly promoted bitcoins, even obtaining the moniker “Bitcoin Jesus.”

On Feb. 4, 2014, Ver allegedly obtained citizenship in St. Kitts and Nevis and shortly thereafter renounced his U.S. citizenship in a process known as expatriation. As a result of his expatriation, Ver allegedly was required under U.S. law to file tax returns that reported capital gains from the constructive sale of his world-wide assets, including the bitcoins, and to report the fair market value of his assets. 

He was also allegedly required to pay a tax, referred to as an “exit tax,” on those capital gains. By Feb. 4, 2014, Ver and his companies allegedly owned approximately 131,000 bitcoins that traded on several large exchanges for around $871 each. MemoryDealers and Agilestar allegedly held approximately 73,000 of those bitcoins.

Ver allegedly hired a law firm to assist him with his expatriation and to prepare his expatriation-related tax returns. Ver also allegedly hired an appraiser to value his two companies. 

Ver Allegedly Provided Or Caused To Be Provided False
Or Misleading Information To The Law Firm And
Appraiser That Concealed The True Number Of
Bitcoins He And His Companies Owned.

(Lying to Your Lawyer is a Waste of Your Money
and a Waste of His or Her Time!!!)

As a result, the law firm allegedly prepared and filed false tax returns that substantially undervalued the two companies and their 73,000 bitcoins and did not report that Ver owned any bitcoins personally.

The indictment further alleges that by June 2017, Ver’s two companies continued to own approximately 70,000 bitcoins. Around that time, Ver allegedly took possession of those bitcoins and in November 2017 sold tens of thousands of them on cryptocurrency exchanges for approximately $240 million in cash. 

Even though Ver was not then a U.S. citizen, he was still legally required to report to the IRS and pay tax on certain distributions such as dividends from MemoryDealers and Agilestar, which were U.S. corporations. Ver allegedly concealed from his accountant that he had received and sold MemoryDealers’ and Agilestar’s bitcoins that year. 

As a result, Ver’s 2017 individual income tax return did not report any gain or pay any tax related to the distribution of MemoryDealers’ and Agilestar’s bitcoins to him.

In total, Ver is alleged to have caused a loss to the IRS of at least $48 million.

Have an Unreported Crypto Currency?

 Like Your Freedom? 

  Contact the Tax Lawyers at

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

According to Law360, New York federal prosecutors announced that they have arrested the co-founders of crypto mixing service Samourai Wallet over their operation of a crypto service that authorities say executed over $2 billion in unlawful transactions.

The unsealed indictment charges Samourai CEO Keone Rodriguez and Chief Technology Officer William Lonergan Hill with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering and one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business related to their roles in a business prosecutors say executed more than $100 million in money laundering transactions from dark web markets such as Silk Road and Hydra.

"While offering Samourai as a 'privacy' service, the defendants knew that it was a haven for criminals to engage in large-scale money laundering and sanctions evasion," the indictment said. "Indeed, as the defendants intended and well knew, a substantial portion of the funds that Samourai processed were criminal proceeds passed through Samourai for purposes of concealment."

While crypto mixers are privacy tools that can be used for lawful purposes, they are also favored by illicit actors because of their ability to obscure the path of funds. The services break down and batch crypto transactions to make the trail of transactions on the blockchain harder to follow.

According to federal prosecutors, Rodriguez and Hill developed, marketed and operated the Samourai mixing service as an unlicensed money transmitting business, earning millions of dollars in fees despite knowing criminals used the service for money laundering and sanctions evasion since its founding in 2015.

Authorities Highlighted Posts And Messages Allegedly From The Co-Founders Discussing
The Platform's Use By Russian Oligarchs And
Criminals Utilizing Online Black Markets, As
Well As Marketing Materials That Promoted
Its Services For "Illicit Activity."

Authorities arrested Rodriguez on Wednesday with plans for him to see a judge in the Western District of Pennsylvania on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice said in its announcement. 

Together, the Charges Carry a Maximum Sentence of 25 Years!

Law enforcement also coordinated with Icelandic authorities to seize Samourai's web servers and domain, and served a seizure warrant on the Google Play Store to remove the mobile application for U.S. users.

Authorities have ramped up their scrutiny of crypto mixers in recent months, sanctioning multiple services, winning a conviction against the operator of the Bitcoin Fog mixer and pursuing a criminal case against the founder of Tornado Cash.

Have an Unreported Crypto Currency?

 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

On January30th 2024 we posted Two Men Indicted On Charges Of Peddling Abusive Trusts, where we discussed that two men promoted and sold abusive tax shelters for the last six years by instructing their clients to use sham trusts to hide business income and illegally deduct personal expenses such as family weddings, according to an indictment in a Colorado federal court in the case of U.S. v. Conner et al., case number 1:23-cr-00390, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

Larry Conner, who operated The Business Solutions Group from his home in Frisco, Texas, and Timothy McPhee, who operated Private Banking Concepts from his home in Estes Park, Colorado, told their clients the trust arrangement was legal, according to the indictment, unsealed On September 25, 2023.

The pair were charged with conspiring to defraud the government and multiple counts of helping clients prepare false tax returns. McPhee and his wife, Marcia Predmore, were also charged with evading their own federal income taxes by employing the abusive trust structure that McPhee is accused of promoting. 

Now According to Law360, a federal grand jury in Denver indicted four more people in connection with what prosecutors call a conspiracy to defraud the government in a multistate scheme to promote abusive tax shelters using sham trusts to hide business income and illegally deduct personal expenses such as family weddings.

According to a superseding indictment on April 24, 2024, one of those newly indicted, Roderick A. Prescott of California and Nevada, had agreed in 2003 to a permanent injunction barring him from promoting the so-called family or business trusts. In his role in the new scheme, for which Larry Conner of Texas and Timothy McPhee of Colorado were first indicted in September, Prescott used an alias to hide his injunction from clients, according to the new indictment.

Two others accused Suzanne Thompson of Montana and Weldon Wulstein of Nevada, ran bookkeeping and tax preparation businesses that helped the scheme's clients prepare false returns, assuring the clients that the shelters were legal ways to reduce tax liabilities, according to the indictment.

The fourth in the ring to be newly indicted is McPhee's wife, Marcia Predmore, who was accused in the original indictment of evading $2 million in federal income taxes with her husband by employing the abusive trust structure that he was accused of promoting.

The indictment accused Prescott, Thompson and Wulstein of helping promote the scheme at seminars and workshops across the country, overseas and online. At some of those seminars Prescott taught about creating a "private family foundation" that was advertised as the last step in the shelter. He also directed clients to wire fees to the promoters' bank account, prosecutors said.

Thompson, who owned a bookkeeping service called The CFO Agency with offices in Montana and Wyoming, and Wulstein, who ran Wulstein Financial Services offering tax preparation from offices in Nevada and California, marketed their accounting and tax services at the seminars, according to court documents.

Predmore and McPhee additionally taught about the shelters under the name of a business they co-owned and ran out of their home in Colorado called Private Banking Concepts, the filings said.

Clients of the scheme were instructed to pay for personal expenses, including mortgage payments, dining costs and weddings, with money held in the trusts, prosecutors said. They were also told to direct assets including real estate and vehicles to the trusts to avoid the appearance of ownership and to avoid paying income taxes on capital gains from selling the assets.

The fraudulent federal tax filings cost the government tens of millions of dollars in tax losses, the indictment said.

Each defendant faces a maximum prison sentence of five (5) years for conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Conner, McPhee, Thompson and Wulstein additionally face up to three (3) years in prison for each count of assisting in the preparation of a false tax return. McPhee and Predmore face up to five (5) years in prison for each count of tax evasion.

Have An Abusive Trust?

Do You 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