The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Sept. 19 reinstated racketeering and misrepresentation claims against a law firm that allegedly provided incomplete and misleading opinion letters about the tax consequences of a welfare benefit plan ultimately found to be an abusive tax shelter (Ouwinga v. Benistar 419 Plan Services Inc., 6th Cir., No.…
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IRS Expands its Offshore Tax Investigation & Expects Charges Against Non-Swiss Banks in the Near Furture!
Officials at the Internal Revenue Service have made it a priority to expand its continuing investigations into offshore tax evasion to countries beyond Switzerland, the chief of the IRS Criminal Investigation division said Oct. 18. Richard Weber, a career prosecutor who assumed his IRS post in May, said that in the near future officials hope…
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Transparancy in Switzerland
The Swiss government has accepted that the qualified intermediary (QI) agreements made between Swiss banks and the US government do not violate banking secrecy laws. The QI agreements came under scrutiny after the disclosure of large amounts of UBS client data to the US Justice Department in 2009. On 30 May 2010, in their report…
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Hotel Owner Faces 15 Years in Jail For Sales Tax Theft
On October 2, 2012, Lawrence Wright, former owner of TW Hospitality, LLC was arrested by the Walton County Sheriff's Department on second degree felony and misdemeanor charges concerning theft of over $37,000 of sales tax allegedly collected but not remitted to the state. The business owned and operated the Comfort Inn & Suites located at…
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