Category Archives: criminal tax law

According to THE HILL the IRS fired 6,700 employees on February 20, 2025, a government official told NewsNation, the sister television network of The Hill.

The employees were designated as probationary, meaning they were working for the agency on a trial basis prior to becoming full staff members.

More than 5,000 of the fired staff members were auditors and collection staff dealing with tax compliance issues, the official told NewsNation.

Now two judges ordered federal agencies on February 14, 2025 to reinstate tens of thousands of workers with probationary status who had been fired across 19 agencies as part of President Trump’s government-gutting initiative.

Together, the rulings formed a wide temporary reprieve for employees across much of the government, including major agencies like the Defense, Treasury, Veterans Affairs and Interior Departments. 

Judge Bredar’s order late Thursday followed a similar one earlier in the day from Judge William H. Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Judge Alsup found that the Trump administration’s firing of probationary workers had essentially been done unlawfully by fiat from the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human resources arm. 

Both judges ordered that the agencies offer to reinstate any probationary employees who had improperly been terminated. Neither order was a final decision in the case.  

Agencies planning to conduct large-scale layoffs can still proceed in accordance with the laws that govern such processes, he said, meaning that the reprieve for workers may only be temporary. The Office of Personnel Management had set a deadline of Thursday for agencies to submit reduction in force plans.

However, the Trump administration wants to cut the IRS workforce by 20% by May 15, including those who have already left or were fired.

Officials at the Elon Musk-led group advising the administration want Acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause to eliminate 18,141 jobs across the agency. This includes the roughly 12,000 employees terminated as part of new-hire layoffs.

Followed by taxpayer services with 3,247, and a small portion in information technology, the source said. Earlier this year the IRS had about 100,000 employees.

 Have an IRS Tax 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)

Sources

THE HILL 

Bloomberg Tax

Read more at: Tax Times blog

The IRS has issued new legal advice regarding transfer pricing adjustments for high-profit-potential intangible property. This guidance, outlined in Legal Advice Issued by Associate Chief Counsel 2025-001, emphasizes the IRS's authority to adjust transfer pricing based on actual profits to align reported income with economic reality.

Authority Under Code Sec. 482: The IRS can reallocate income between commonly controlled entities to ensure reported income reflects economic reality. This is done by applying the arm's length standard (ALS) and the "commensurate with income principle" for high-profit-potential intangible assets.

Arm's Length Standard (ALS): This standard ensures that transactions between related parties resemble those between independent entities. However, taxpayers may not use ALS alone to overcome adjustments if actual profits significantly exceed projections.

Commensurate with Income Principle: This principle ensures that compensation for intangible assets remains aligned with actual income over time. If actual profits exceed projections, the IRS may adjust transfer pricing to reflect this increased value. For example:

1. Licensing of Intangible Property: If a U.S. company licenses intellectual property to a foreign affiliate and actual profits exceed initial estimates, the IRS may adjust the royalty rate to ensure it aligns with the income generated by the asset.
2. Cost-Sharing Arrangements (CSA): If actual profits from shared development efforts far exceed projections, the IRS may adjust platform contribution transaction (PCT) payments to reflect the increased value of the intangible assets.

To avoid adjustments, taxpayers must satisfy specific exceptions by demonstrating that their transfer pricing methods align with IRS requirements. 

Simply Invoking ALS Or Claiming Compliance
With The Best Method Rule Is Insufficient.

This guidance underscores the IRS's focus on ensuring that intercompany transactions involving intangible property accurately reflect economic reality, preventing undervaluation and income distortions.

Being Audited by the IRS ?

 

 

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

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released the first in a series of seven annual reports, mandated by the Corporate Transparency Act, evaluating the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's (FinCEN) safeguarding of beneficial ownership information (BOI) received from certain legal entities. (GAO-25-107403)

The report focused on the extent to which FinCEN granted agencies access to BOI in compliance with the act and FinCEN's oversight of agencies' access to and use of the information. As of October 29, 2024, the following agencies were approved for access to BOI: 

• the FBI, 
• IRS-Criminal Investigations (CI), 
• U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and 
• U.S. Secret Service.

As described in the report, the four agencies were chosen because they were significant and experienced users of BSA data. "IRS-CI investigates complex and significant money laundering activity, including that related to terrorism financing and transnational organized crime," GAO noted.

According to the report, IRS-CI and the other three agencies received initial access to BOI under a pilot program which required the piloted agencies to:

• appoint an agency coordinator (the primary contact for managing BOI access and memorandum of understanding compliance);

• provide FinCEN with a signed memorandum of understanding establishing the terms and conditions under which the agency may obtain, store, use, and re-disclose BOI;

• submit an initial report describing the standards and procedures established to comply with access rule requirements for protecting BOI; and

• provide a certification signed and dated by the agency's head attesting that its standards and procedures comply with the access rule's security and confidentiality requirements.

FinCEN is developing policies and procedures to oversee BOI users, including:

• Annual audits and other inspections.

• Periodic submissions of semi-annual certificates of compliance with established criteria.

• Prompt notification of any compliance failure revealed in annual internal audits and any potential or actual BOI compromise or loss.

• Monitoring of query audit logs.

Need Help Filing Your BOI Report?

     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, a Florida woman, and dual U.S. and Colombian citizen, pleaded guilty on March 10, 2025 to conspiring to defraud the United States by, among other things, concealing tens of millions of dollars in undeclared foreign financial accounts, filing false tax returns, and evading taxes.

According to court documents and statements made in court, between 2010 and 2022, Gilda Rosenberg, of Golden Beach, Florida, conspired with two family members to conceal from the IRS more than $90 million in assets and income held in undeclared bank accounts in Andorra, Israel, Panama and Switzerland. 

Rosenberg’s family had maintained offshore accounts since the 1970s. By the late 1990s, Rosenberg, who was identified as an owner and an authorized signer on some of the accounts, knew that she and her family members had not disclosed their ownership of these foreign financial accounts to the U.S. government and that they had not paid any taxes on the income earned from the assets in those accounts as was required by law. 

Starting in the early 2000s, the family consolidated their assets at accounts with Credit Suisse in Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Family members told Credit Suisse employees that they were U.S. persons and seeking to hide their assets from U.S. authorities. The assets remained at Credit Suisse until 2013, when Credit Suisse closed the accounts because the family members were U.S. persons. 

When Credit Suisse closed their accounts, the family moved their assets, which were typically titled in the names of nominee entities, to new accounts located at Bank Leumi in Israel, Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) and PKB Privat Bank SA in Switzerland, and an Andorran bank.

Rosenberg Was Documented As The Beneficial Owner Of Accounts At UBP And The Andorran Bank. She Also Signed
False Account Opening Documents That Claimed She Was
A Colombian Resident And Not A U.S. Citizen.

Rosenberg, as well as her relatives, did not file Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARS) disclosing their foreign financial accounts, as they were required to do. In addition, Rosenberg and her relatives continued to file false tax returns that omitted income generated by their offshore assets. 

In or about 2017, as part of a scheme to continue to evade their U.S. tax and reporting obligations, Rosenberg and the family members divided the family’s assets and signed documents to make it appear that Rosenberg and a relative gifted the offshore assets to another relative after he had renounced his U.S. citizenship. 

Rosenberg and her relatives then tried to covertly transfer assets to Rosenberg in the United States and to conceal their ongoing and historical tax evasion. To do so, Rosenberg and her relatives, among other things, created fake loan and investment documents to make it appear that transfers to and from Rosenberg were loans and business investments. 

From 2010 Through 2017, Rosenberg Filed False Tax
Returns That Did Not Report More Than $5.5 Million In
Income She Earned From Her Assets At UBP, Which
Caused A Tax Loss To The IRS Of $1,927,342. 

Rosenberg is scheduled to be sentenced on May 30. She faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison as well as a period of supervised release, restitution and monetary penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. 

Read more at: Tax Times blog