Category Archives: criminal tax law

On October 29, 2019 we posted The IRS is Now Criminally Prosecuting Employers For Failure To Pay Withheld Payroll Taxes! where we discussed that the IRS is stepping up criminally prosecuting business owners for failing to turn over withheld payroll taxes.

Then on June 4, 2020  we posted Another Employer Gets Criminally Prosecuting For Failure To Pay Withheld Payroll Taxes! and on June 29, 2020 we posted More Employers Gets Criminally Prosecuting For Failure To Pay Withheld Payroll Taxes! and now according to DoJ,  the owner of a Greensboro, North Carolina, business owner was sentenced to 42 months in prison on October 6, 2020 for failing to pay employment taxes. 

Again on October 7, 2020 we again posted The IRS Criminally Prosecutes Another Employer For Failure To Pay Withheld Payroll Taxes! where we discussed that Rebecca Adams, 57, and her daughter Elizabeth Wood, 40, operated a temporary staffing businesses in Greensboro under the names A & R Staffing Solutions Inc., Wood Executive Services Inc., and Adams Staffing Enterprises Inc. and that the owner of a Greensboro, North Carolina, business owner was sentenced to 42 months in prison on October 6, 2020 for failing to pay employment taxes and now according to the DoJ, a Potomac, Maryland, owner of companies providing food services in government buildings was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment for not paying more than $10 million in employment and sales tax. 

According to documents and information provided to the court, Steve Choi was the founder, president, and operator of nine companies that provided food services within government buildings located in the D.C. area, including the Department of Justice, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce, NASA, and the Library of Congress, among other locations. 

As president and operator of the companies, Choi was responsible for collecting and paying employment taxes to the IRS. 

Notwithstanding these obligations, and civil collection efforts from the IRS, from 2012 through 2015, Choi collected tax withholdings from his employees’ wages, but did not pay over $4.4 million in employment taxes. 

During the same period, Choi also did not pay more than $6.2 million in sales taxes to the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue. 

Rather than pay the sales and employment taxes, from 2011 through 2015, Choi directed his companies to pay millions of dollars in other expenditures, including over $1 million in personal salary, personal donations, and cash advances. 

On Feb. 7, 2020, Choi pleaded guilty to employment tax fraud. 

“As an employer, Choi had a legal obligation to pay over the money withheld for taxes on behalf of his employees,” said IRS-Criminal Investigation (CI) Special Agent in Charge Kelly R. Jackson. 

“CI Will Continue To Investigate Those Who Choose To
Utilize Their Companies’ Payroll Tax Withholdings
For Their Personal Benefit.” 

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson ordered Choi to serve three (3) years of supervised release and to pay approximately $6,390,182 in restitution to the Office of Tax and Revenue and $4,737,809 in restitution to the United States. 

Thinking of Borrowing From Your Company's

Payroll Tax Withholdings?

You Better Thank Again, if You Like Your Freedom!

Have Payroll 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

Read more at: Tax Times blog

On October 29, 2019 we posted The IRS is Now Criminally Prosecuting Employers For Failure To Pay Withheld Payroll Taxes! where we discussed that the IRS is stepping up criminally prosecuting business owners for failing to turn over withheld payroll taxes.

Then on June 4, 2020  we posted Another Employer Gets Criminally Prosecuting For Failure To Pay Withheld Payroll Taxes! and on June 29, 2020 we posted More Employers Gets Criminally Prosecuting For Failure To Pay Withheld Payroll Taxes! and now according to DoJ,  the owner of a Greensboro, North Carolina, business owner was sentenced to 42 months in prison on October 6, 2020 for failing to pay employment taxes. 

According to documents and information provided to the court, Rebecca Adams, 57, and her daughter Elizabeth Wood, 40, operated a temporary staffing businesses in Greensboro under the names A & R Staffing Solutions Inc., Wood Executive Services Inc., and Adams Staffing Enterprises Inc. 

In 2015, Wood pleaded guilty to embezzling employee tax withholdings that were due to the state and was sentenced to prison. 

During Wood’s period of incarceration for the state payroll tax fraud, Adams continued to withhold taxes from employees’ paychecks, but did not pay those taxes over to the IRS. Adams also did not file with the IRS a required quarterly payroll tax return. 

In addition to the term of imprisonment, U.S. District Judge N. Carlton Tilley Jr., ordered Adams to serve three years of supervised release and to pay approximately $2,222,834 in restitution to the United States. On June 25, 2020, Wood was sentenced to 18 months in prison for failing to pay over employment taxes, and ordered to pay approximately $2,338,766 in restitution to the United States

Thinking of Borrowing From Your Company's

Payroll Tax Withholdings?

You Better Thank Again, if You Like Your Freedom!

Have Payroll 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

Read more at: Tax Times blog

The IRS is experiencing processing delays as it works through its unopened mail backlog. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020 the IRS suspended or extremely limited many of its live services, including telephone assistance, processing paper tax returns, and responding to correspondence. 

At one point, due to the suspension of services, the IRS had a backlog of more than 11 million pieces of unopened mail. This unopened mail backlog consisted of tax returns, tax payments, and taxpayer correspondence. 

Around 5 Million Pieces of Unopened Mail, About Half of Which Are Tax Returns, Remain Unopened and are Stored At Various IRS Processing Centers As Of October 2, 2020.

At a recent American Bar Association Tax Section meeting, an IRS official acknowledged that the IRS is experiencing delays in processing paper returns and other mail due to limited staffing.

According to the IRS official, where a taxpayer paper-filed an extension request, and then e-filed the return before the extension request was processed, the IRS will “systemically abate” any failure-to-file penalties, once the IRS has processed the extension request. 

Similarly, the IRS official said that the IRS will "systemically abate" late-payment penalties, as long as paper checks were mailed by the extended July 15th due date, once the IRS has processed all its backlogged mail. 

The IRS official said that the IRS's mail backlog has limited correspondence exams, and the IRS has put its automated levy program on hold while it works through its backlog. 

However, the IRS official said, taxpayers should respond to all exam notices, if only to explain why they are unable to comply with requests for information contained in such notices. 

                                                                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

Strachans SA in Liquidation Pleads Guilty Strachans SA in Liquidation pleaded guilty on October 6, 2020 to conspiring with U.S. taxpayers and others to hide income and assets in offshore entities and bank accounts from the IRS, and was sentenced in accordance with the guilty plea, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, U.S. Attorney Nicola T. Hanna, and Chief James Lee of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). 

According to documents filed in Los Angeles federal court, Strachans was an independent firm providing administration to offshore structures for clients residing in a range of countries, including citizens and residents of the United States (U.S.-based clients). This included the formation of trusts and offshore companies, administration, bookkeeping, and accounting. Strachans additionally, however, helped U.S.-based clients hide assets from the IRS and evade taxes through the following: 

• Managing undeclared assets for U.S.-based clients that were held by nominee sham entities belonging to the U.S.-based clients.
• Facilitating frequent cash collections by U.S.-based clients knowing that they had no intention of declaring the funds to the IRS. 

• Providing mechanisms for U.S.-based clients to access their undeclared offshore funds in a secret manner, including fake loans, fake consultancy agreements, and dummy invoicing. 

• For a limited number of U.S.-based clients, who sought an extraordinary level of confidentiality, holding funds in the personal accounts of Strachans’ shareholders to conceal the true beneficial ownership of funds from the IRS. 

Strachans accepted responsibility for its conduct by pleading guilty, stipulating to the accuracy of an extensive Statements of Facts, and paying a fine of $500,000. The October 6, 2020 guilty plea is the direct result of Strachans’ voluntary disclosure of its criminal conduct in May 2014, and its full and ongoing cooperation with the Department of Justice in connection with its criminal investigations. 

Read more at: Tax Times blog