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The Internal Revenue Service unveiled on April 6, 2023, its Strategic Operating Plan, an ambitious effort to transform the tax agency and dramatically improve service to taxpayers and the nation during the next decade. The 150-page report to the Secretary of the Treasury outlines the agency’s historic plans to make fundamental changes following funding from last year’s Inflation Reduction Act. 

The plan makes clear that the resources to be deployed over the short and long term will be used to accomplish various objectives including:

• Adding capacity to unpack the complex filings of high-income taxpayers, large corporations and complex partnerships and

• Addressing a growing chasm between the number of experienced compliance personnel at the IRS who audit high-income, high-wealth tax filings for compliance (about 2,600 employees) and the roughly 30,000 individuals making more than $10 million a year, 60,000 large corporations and 300,000 large partnerships and S corps.

The spending plan calls for hiring and onboarding the first groups of compliance specialists to focus on large corporations and partnerships and high-income individuals in the 2023 fiscal year. Under the plan, the agency would start using new compliance tactics for the wealthy and large corporations in the 2025 fiscal year.

Werfel Said Households And Small Businesses Earning Less Than $400,000 Annually Should Have No Reason To Be Concerned About Increased Enforcement Under The Plan.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has issued a directive forbidding the IRS from boosting audit rates for those populations relative to historical levels. 

The plan is organized around five objectives which includes expanded enforcement on taxpayers with complex tax filings and high-dollar noncompliance to address the tax gap. The plan also highlights how the IRS will be working to ensure fair enforcement of the nation’s tax laws and compliance with existing laws while respecting taxpayer rights. 

“Effective enforcement is an important component of this plan,” Werfel said. “Revenue collected by the IRS supports everything from the nation’s defense to education and roads.”

The IRS Will Be Solely Focused on Increased Efforts on Identified Compliance Issues Involving Large Corporations, Larger Partnerships And High-Wealth Individuals.

However, practically increasing enforcement work may take years, based upon the time needed to hire and train a large number of personnel.

Need to Get Right With the IRS?

     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

In IR-2023-56 issued on March 23, 2023 the IRS explained that most IRS contacts with taxpayers are through regular mail delivered by the United States Postal Service. However, there are limited circumstances when the IRS will come to a home or business as part of a collection investigation, an audit or an ongoing criminal investigation.

IRS In-Person Visits

IRS employees that may make face-to-face visits outside an IRS office include revenue officers, revenue agents and IRS Criminal Investigation special agents. IRS employees are trained to respect taxpayer rights, and there are some important facts to keep in mind about the different types of visits.

Revenue Officers are IRS civil enforcement employees who work to resolve compliance issues such as unfiled returns and/or taxes owed; all situations where the taxpayer typically would have received multiple IRS letters in advance.

These in-person visits may be unscheduled and can be to share information, inform taxpayers of their tax filing and payment obligations and work with taxpayers to resolve their tax issues and bring them into compliance.

They conduct interviews to gather financial information and provide taxpayers with the necessary steps to become and remain compliant with the tax laws.

Revenue Agents usually conduct in-person field audits that are normally at the taxpayer's home, place of business or accountant's office where the organization's financial books and records are located. Revenue agents will make contact via mail or phone prior to any visit.

Revenue officers and agents always carry two forms of official credentials with a serial number and their photo. Taxpayers have the right to see each of these credentials and can also request an additional method to verify their identification.

More information on identifying legitimate IRS representatives and how to report scams can be found at IRS.gov.

IRS-CI Special Agents investigate potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes. IRS-CI's investigative jurisdiction includes tax, money laundering and Bank Secrecy Act laws. IRS-CI special agents always present their law enforcement credentials when conducting investigations.

IRS-CI may visit a taxpayer's home or business unannounced during an investigation. However, they will not demand any sort of payment. Learn more about IRS-CI on IRS.gov.

How to report impersonation scams

If a person doesn't have a previously known tax issue and suspects someone is trying to impersonate an IRS employee, there are a variety of options to report these scams.

Have an IRS Tax Problem?

     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

On  Jun 14, 2022 we posted IRS Warns Taxpayers Again to Avoid Companies Claiming They Can Settle Your Tax Debt "For Pennies on the Dollar" - Call Us  to Speak With Real Experienced Tax Attorneys where we discussed that in its 2022 “Dirty Dozen” tax scams the IRS warned people to watch out for Offer in Compromise mills which contort the IRS program into something it’s not, misleading people with no chance of meeting the requirements while charging excessive fees, often thousands of dollars. 

Taxpayers should be especially wary of promoters who claim they can obtain larger offer settlements than others or who make misleading promises that the IRS will accept an offer for a small percentage. 

Have a Tax Problem?    

 

Real Tax Problems Require

Real Tax Attorneys!

 

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

According to the DoJ, Daniel Wälchli pled guilty on March 30, 2023 to conspiring to defraud the United States in connection with a scheme to help wealthy American clients conceal more than $60 million in income and assets held in undeclared offshore bank accounts and evade U.S. income taxes.  

Wälchli was a member of the executive board of a Swiss holding company that owned, among other entities, a Zurich-based private bank called Privatbank IHAG Zurich AG (“IHAG”). 

According to the allegations in the Indictment, court filings, and statements made in Court:

From in or about 2009 to in or about 2014, Wälchli and his co-conspirators defrauded the IRS by concealing income and assets of three wealthy U.S. clients with undeclared bank accounts at IHAG.  

In order to assist the U.S. clients, Wälchli and his co-conspirators devised and implemented a scheme dubbed the “Singapore Solution” to fraudulently conceal the bank accounts of the U.S. clients, their assets, and their income from U.S. authorities.  

In furtherance of the fraudulent scheme, Wälchli and his co-conspirators agreed to transfer more than $60 million from undeclared IHAG bank accounts of the U.S. clients through a series of nominee bank accounts in Hong Kong and other locations before returning the funds to newly opened accounts at IHAG in the name of a Singapore-based asset-management firm that Wälchli helped establish.  

The U.S. Clients Paid Large Fees To IHAG And Others To Help

Them Conceal Their Assets And Evade U.S. Income Taxes.

Wälchli, 55, of Switzerland, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, which carries a maximum sentence of five (5) years in prison. 

According to Law360 Walchli was one of six executives who along with Zurich-based Allied Finance Trust AG were named in an indictment unsealed in 2021 as aiding the American taxpayers using the Singapore Solution scheme.

Wayne Franklyn Chinn, one of the clients who the DOJ said benefited from the scheme, pled guilty to one count of tax evasion in 2021. According to associated documents also unsealed in 2021, Chinn hid about $5 million from the IRS between 2001 and 2018 and held income in IHAG accounts, according to the DOJ. 

Chinn agreed to turn over $2.2 million in civil forfeitures held in five accounts at two Singapore banks and faced up to five (5) years in prison and possible time under supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties, the DOJ said.

In 2021, Chinn was sentenced to five (5) years probation, including 18 months of house arrest, and restitution of $789,000.

Read more at: Tax Times blog