Miami Tax Law Blog

On June 18, the last day of meetings wrapped up at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland. With representatives from around the world getting together to discuss highly important global issues, it was not always easy to find common ground. However, representatives from the coutries present were able to stand together behind one issue: taking a strong stance against international tax evasion.

The seething rhetoric about those who fail to pay their fair share came in the wake of revelations that several major players in the American tech industry, including Apple, Amazon and Google, have engineered complicated frameworks to shift revenues away from the U.S. and the U.K. and into countries with lower corporate tax rates, even without conducting much more than token business in the low-tax nations.

For better or worse, the IRS will be deeply involved in implementing the Affordable Care Act. Indeed, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) has said that the tax provisions of the ACA amount to the biggest package of tax law changes in at least 20 years.

The ACA, otherwise known as Obamacare, takes full effect next year. In South Florida and across the nation, individuals and small businesses are trying to figure out how to respond to its many specific provisions.

We've paid close attention in this blog to the issue of tax refund fraud involving identity theft. It's an issue that has been of concern across the country, but especially in Florida.

In a recent case in Tampa, a 29-year-old woman pleaded guilty to filing more than 150 false returns from a computer at her personal residence. She was sentenced last week to 5 1/2 years in prison. The convictions were for aggravated identity theft and theft of government property.

Statistics don't speak for themselves. And they can definitely used to spin a story in ways that shade the true. That was probably what Mark Twain was getting at in his famous remark about "lies, damned lies and statistics."

But when used rationally and responsibly, there is no doubt that a trail of data can illuminate a meaningful tale. Consider, for example, data from the IRS about criminal tax investigations.

These statistics point to criminal tax enforcement activities that are of interest to taxpayers in South Florida and across the nation.

Penalties for criminal tax fraud can vary widely. In some cases, judges impose lengthy prison sentences. In others, judges use their discretion to place someone on probation.

Depending on the crime of conviction, there are also often other sentencing alternatives available. These include house arrest, fines and community service.

In a recent Florida tax fraud case, a judge used sentencing discretion to give someone a break in a case involving tax fraud and identity theft. In federal court in Miami, a judge sentenced a Broward man to only 11 days of prison time for his part in a scheme in which he and two others submitted about 5,000 false tax returns.

The world is globalized as it has never been before. Immigration goges in many different directions. And yet, as in previous generations, the United States remains a magnet for many people.

The immigration process can take a long time, however. And so, for tax and other purposes, it becomes important to know when someone is considered a U.S. resident for tax purposes. This is a particularly important question in South Florida, where the dynamics of immigration to the U.S. are so strong.

Witnesses who cooperate with law enforcement authorities tend to receive more favorable treatment. This is generally true for all types of criminal charges. And that includes tax evasion charges.

An example of this comes from a recent case involving a federal investigation into offshore accounts at HSBC, a huge multinational financial company based in Great Britain. Authorities were trying to determine whether HSBC India was engaged in a conspiracy to assist American taxpayers in concealing assets from the IRS in foreign accounts.

Life is difficult, and there are certainly things that can get in the way of responsibility. When someone is struggling with something like depression or addiction, certain responsibilities no doubt seem like a less important issue. In some of these cases, one of those items that fall onto the back burner are taxes. 

It doesn't have to be a medical diagnosis that stops people from filing their income tax returns every year. Unemployment is one siutation where people even become confused over the fact that even without a W-2, there is still a yearly requirement.

We've been paying close attention to the problem of tax refund fraud based in identity theft. This type of tax fraud occurs all over the country, but has been especially common in Florida.

Law enforcement authorities have been seeking ways to respond more effectively to the problem. One of those, as we discussed in our April 4 post, is through an IRS pilot program that encourages more information sharing among state and federal agencies.

The Florida legislature has also addressed tax refund fraud in a recent bill. Earlier this month, both chambers of the legislature agreed on the final version of a bill intended to make it easier for authorities to bring criminal charges against people for the possession of certain unauthorized information.