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Another Felony Criminal Tax Prosecution!

January 5, 2012

United States v. Quinn (D. KS 2011) is one of several recent felony tax prosecutions, not for tax evasion, but for violation of Internal Revenue Code Section 7202. IRC Section 7202 makes it a felony to willfully fail to collect, account for, or pay over any tax due. In this case Ms. Quinn failed to pay payroll taxes for 7 quarters between 2003 and 2005. She finally got around to paying them in 2010, apparently after the IRS had filed criminal tax charges against her. Ms. Quinn challenged the finding that she failed to pay employment and individual tax and argued that since she had subsequently paid the tax due the charges should be dismissed. 

The court wrote in its opinion that a person has failed to pay taxes if they have not paid the amount due as of the due date, regardless of whether the taxpayer has subsequently paid. In Ms. Quinn's case, she had recently paid the amounts due but this was not sufficient for the court to find her not guilty.
This does not mean that late payment of taxes will never prevent a criminal tax prosecution, and those who have not paid their taxes should seriously consider taking care of a tax problem before it turns into a criminal tax problem. Had Ms. Quinn gotten around to making full payment, or indeed even made good faith installment payments much earlier there is a chance that the case would never have gotten as far as it did.

Read more at: Tax Times blog

US Charges 3 Swiss Bankers in Tax Evasion Case

January 4, 2012

U.S. prosecutors charged three Swiss bankers on Tuesday of conspiring with wealthy U.S. taxpayers to hide more than $1.2 billion in assets from tax authorities.

The three bankers worked as client advisers at a Zurich bank branch and hid certain Swiss bank accounts and the income they generated, prosecutors said. They did not identify the bank branch.

The indictment filed in U.S. District Court in New York identified the three bankers as Michael Berlinka, Urs Frei and Roger Keller. It said they all live in Switzerland. Their attorneys were not immediately known.

If convicted, the bankers face a maximum prison term of five years under the conspiracy charge.

The case is USA v. Berlinka et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, no. 1:12-cr-00002-JSR.

Read more at: Tax Times blog

Swiss fin min says U.S. tax deal needs time. Delay of the Inevitable?

January 4, 2012

"We have made a lot of progress with the main point of the treaty, but we are not there yet where we want to be from a Swiss point of view. The demands of the Americans and the expectations of the Swiss are not yet in line and it will certainly need more talks," Widmer-Schlumpf said.

Earlier this month, the upper house of the Swiss parliament backed an amendment that would allow Switzerland to compel its banks to hand over American client data, even if authorities don't already know the client names; the lower house still has to approve it.

The amendment covers an existing tax treaty between the United States and Switzerland in which the Alpine country has agreed to hand over client data but generally only if the U.S. side already knows the client's identity.

Swiss fin min says U.S. tax deal needs time -radio - Rueters

Read more at: Tax Times blog

New US tactic for suspected Swiss bank tax cheats – Rueters

January 4, 2012

Backed by court judges, federal prosecutors are issuing subpoenas -- official papers which compel the recipients to provide potentially damning evidence -- to United States taxpayers suspected of holding hidden accounts at Swiss and other offshore banks, according to criminal defence lawyers whose clients have received the papers.

The grand jury subpoenas are unusual in that they ask bank clients -- not the banks themselves -- to turn over to the authorities their bank account details since 2003, including statements with the highest annual balances. Taxpayers who refuse to comply potentially face a stark choice: be found in contempt of court and thus subject to civil or criminal fines and jail time, or disclose potentially incriminating evidence against themselves.

New US tactic for suspected Swiss bank tax cheats - Rueters

Read more at: Tax Times blog

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