Many of my firm's clients have been participants in abusive offshore tax schemes of one variety or another. Typically, the Internal Revenue Service has sent a letter stating that the client has been identified in such a scheme, and inviting the client's cooperation in an investigation into their activities. Typically, the involvement goes back several years; years as to which the IRS could only assess additional income tax if it asserted the fraud penalty in order to keep the assessment period open under the tax assessment statute. Many times, where a client may be notified that he is a target of a criminal investigation relating to an involvement as a participant in an abusive tax shelter, the client has been a victim of an unscrupulous promoter selling what the Internal Revenue Service sees as nothing more than snake oil. The IRS view in either case is that in the transaction or series of transactions in which the client has been involved are merely attempts to abuse the tax system.
The biggest mistake that a client can make is to underestimate the seriousness of such matters. The unknown is measured from the point of view of one's perspective on it, and while no tax lawyer however skilled in criminal tax defense can predict a future outcome, perspective is everything. In any offshore tax investigative matter, or criminal tax investigation generally, under no circumstance it is a good idea to speak to a special agent of the Internal Revenue Service without first consulting a lawyer with a complete understanding of substantive and procedural criminal tax law. I have that understanding.
Look to the following sites of The United States Department of Justice and elsewhere to read further about prosecution of offshore tax scams and abusive tax shelters.
- http://www.quatloos.com/
- http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/ - Search "Press Room and Tax"
- www.usdoj.gov/tax - Search "Tax News" and "Press Releases"
- http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/readingroom/2008ctm/TaxManual2008.htm - Department of Justice Tax Division Criminal Tax Manual
-
http://meetings.abanet.org/webupload/commupload/IC650004/relatedresources/4.1.pdf- This is a link to an article published as part of an American Bar Association OVDI and FBAR Guidance Teleconference dated March 16, 2011
For information on the newest [February 10, 2011] elective IRS initiative offshore "program" for United States Citizens owning undisclosed foreign accounts, go to: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=234900,00.html.
After navigating through the links on the IRS Program Site, please call my office. Although legal advice cannot be given over the telephone, a brief but free consultation will be provided concerning the program.
For more information, and if you are or believe that you are involve in an investigation into an offshore or high-risk tax structure, please call me in confidence immediately at 1-888-TAX-RISK (829-7475). Thank you.
