Category Archives: criminal tax law

In IR-2023-172 dated Sept. 15, 2023, the IRS explained that as part of larger transformation work underway to make improvements, the Internal Revenue Service announced the opening of  more than 3,700 positions nationwide to help with expanded enforcement work focusing on complex partnerships and large corporations

These compliance positions will be open in more than 250 locations nationwide and is part of a larger effort to add fairness to the tax system and expand tax enforcement involving areas of concern with high-income earners, partnerships, large corporations and promoters. 

The Hiring Will Be For Higher-Graded Revenue Agents,
Which Are Specialized Technical Positions
That Generally Focus On Audits.

This continued hiring effort builds off earlier efforts to add taxpayer service employees at the IRS, part of the landmark Inflation Reduction Act funding approved in August 2022.

"This is another important step for the IRS as we work to transform the agency and make improvements," said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. This next wave of hiring will help the IRS add key talent like tax accountants to help reverse a decade-long decline of audits for the wealthy as well as complex partnerships and corporations.

These New Employees Will Be Focused On Higher-Income
And Complex Tax Areas Like Partnerships, Not Average Taxpayers Making Less Than $400,000."

"This is an exciting time to be at the IRS," said IRS Human Capital Officer Traci DiMartini. "The IRS provides a competitive financial package for people with expertise in this high-demand area. For people with accounting and financial backgrounds, we encourage them to take a close look at the benefits of working for the IRS and serving our nation."

Earn > $400,000 of Income?

Have Unreported/Under Reported Income?

     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 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA ) issue Report Number: 2023-30-054 on August 31, 2023 concluding that the IRS Needs to Leverage the Most Effective Training for Revenue Agents Examining High-Income Taxpayers.

In August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) was enacted providing almost $80 billion (with $45.6 billion for enforcement activities) to the IRS over a decade. In this report, TIGTA assessed the IRS’s strategy to train employees hired specifically to conduct audits of high earners and large businesses that underreport income.

In August 2022, the Secretary of the Treasury stated that IRA funding was intended in part to increase examination of high-income taxpayers. The Secretary also directed that no additional resources, including any new hires, shall be used to increase the share of small businesses or households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited relative to historical levels. 

The Large Business And International (LB&I) Division
Has Expertise In Training Revenue Agents
On Examining High-Income Taxpayers.

However, the IRS’s efforts to train new hires do not appear to be fully leveraging this expertise. 

The IRS treats this training as specialized and only offers it when necessary for employees auditing in this specialized area. Commensurate with the new IRA funding, the IRS should revise its training paradigm and expose new hires to the types of issues associated with high-income taxpayer returns. 

• The Small Business/Self-Employed Division’s Fiscal Year 2023 Examination Plan showed no significant increase in the number of high-income individual audits. 
• Additionally, the LB&I Division’s resource allocation plan is not detailed enough for TIGTA to assess the IRS’s intended efforts to examine high-income individuals with the increased enforcement funding. 
• The IRS does not have a unified or updated definition for individual high-income taxpayers. 
• The Tax Reform Act of 1976 required annual publication of data on individual income tax returns reporting income of $200,000 or more. The current examination activity code schema still uses $200,000 as the main threshold. 

The IRS’s Inflation Reduction Act Strategic Operating Plan sets forth leveraging data analytics to improve the IRS’s understanding of the tax filings of high-wealth individuals and to address potential noncompliance. 

Consequently, The IRS Needs To Update Its High-Income Taxpayer Definition To Better Identify And Track Examination Results And Manage Examination Priorities.

TIGTA made six recommendations, including that the IRS leverage the LB&I Division’s extensive knowledge base by embracing its current high-income individual training content and ensure that examination plans follow the Secretary of Treasury’s Directive to prioritize coverage of individual high-income earners over $400,000. 

The IRS agreed or partially agreed with five of the six recommendations and disagreed with one recommendation.

Earn > $400,000 of Income?

Have Unreported/Under Reported Income?

Marini & Associates, P.A. 

Read more at: Tax Times blog

According to Law360, in the case Piper Trucking & Leasing LLC v. Commissioner, docket number 20468-21L, the U.S. Tax Court ruled that digitally calculated penalties imposed on employers who fail to file certain tax forms do not require supervisory approval.

The Internal Revenue Service may proceed with its plan to collect penalties assessed to Piper Trucking & Leasing by the agency's combined annual wage reporting program after the company failed to file Forms W-2 and W-3 with the Social Security Administration.

The SSA twice attempted to reach out to the company to remedy the issue, the opinion said, but after the Ohio-based company failed to respond, the SSA referred the matter to the IRS. Using the software, the agency then assessed Piper a penalty under Internal Revenue Code Section 6721(e), an assessment Piper argued was invalid.

Under Section 6751 of the IRC, no penalties shall be assessed unless the initial determination is approved by the immediate supervisor of the person making the decision. 

However, the Same Section Provides that
Penalties Calculated Without Human Interaction
are not Subject to the Approval Requirement

___________________ 

Have An IRS Penalty Problem?

     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

In IR-2023-166 The IRS announced sweeping effort to restore fairness to tax system with Inflation Reduction Act funding; new compliance efforts focused on increasing scrutiny on high-income, partnerships, corporations and promoters abusing tax rules.

Capitalizing on Inflation Reduction Act funding and following a top-to-bottom review of enforcement efforts, the Internal Revenue Service announced on  Sept. 8, 2023 the start of a sweeping, historic effort to restore fairness in tax compliance by shifting more attention onto high-income earners, partnerships, large corporations and promoters abusing the nation's tax laws.

The effort, building off work following last August's IRA funding, will center on adding more attention on wealthy, partnerships and other high earners that have seen sharp drops in audit rates for these taxpayer segments during the past decade. 

The changes will be driven with the help of improved technology as well as Artificial Intelligence that will help IRS compliance teams better detect tax cheating, identify emerging compliance threats and improve case selection tools to avoid burdening taxpayers with needless "no-change" audits.

As Part of the Effort, the IRS Will Also Ensure Audit Rates Do Not Increase for Those Earning Less Than $400,000 a Year... 

"This New Compliance Push Makes Good On The Promise
Of The Inflation Reduction Act To Ensure The IRS
Holds Our Wealthiest Filers Accountable To Pay The
Full Amount Of What They Owe,"
Said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel.

"The years of underfunding that predated the Inflation Reduction Act led to the lowest audit rate of wealthy filers in our history. I am committed to reversing this trend, making sure that new funding will mean more effective compliance efforts on the wealthy, while middle- and low-income filers will continue to see no change in historically low pre-IRA audit rates for years to come."

 "There is a sea change taking place at the IRS in every aspect of our operations. Anchored by a deep respect for taxpayer rights, the IRS is deploying new resources towards cutting-edge technology to improve our visibility on where the wealthy shield their income and focus staff attention on the areas of greatest abuse. 

We will increase our compliance efforts on those posing the greatest risk to our nation's tax system, whether it's the wealthy looking to dodge paying their fair share or promoters aggressively peddling abusive schemes. These steps are critical for the future of the nation's tax system."

For the broader compliance work going on across the IRS, this will be an expansive effort with more details to be announced in the weeks and months ahead. Key elements of this new effort include:

Prioritization of high-income cases. In the High Wealth, High Balance Due Taxpayer Field Initiative, the IRS will intensify work on taxpayers with total positive income above $1 million that have more than $250,000 in recognized tax debt. Building off earlier successes that collected $38 million from more than 175 high-income earners, the IRS will have dozens of Revenue Officers focusing on these high-end collection cases in FY 2024. The IRS is working to expand this effort, contacting about 1,600 taxpayers in this category that owe hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.

More scrutiny on FBAR violations. High-income taxpayers from all segments continue to utilize Foreign Bank accounts to avoid disclosure and related taxes. A U.S. person with a financial interest over a foreign financial account is required to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) if the aggregate value of all foreign financial accounts is more than $10,000 at any time. IRS analysis of multi-year filing patterns has identified hundreds of possible FBAR non-filers with account balances that average over $1.4 million. The IRS plans to audit the most egregious potential non-filer FBAR cases in Fiscal Year 2024.

Have Unreported Income?

Marini & Associates, P.A. 

Read more at: Tax Times blog