by Jason Harn | Nov 13, 2018 | Criminal Tax Defense, Tax Advice
The month of October began and ended with two celebrity names receiving unfavorable news in their tax controversy matters. On October 5th, Michael “the Situation” Sorrentino, of “Jersey Shore” acclaim, and his brother received prison sentences in Newark, New Jersey federal court. To round the month out, on November 1st, Wesley Snipes lost his Tax Court battle in which he alleged the IRS abused its discretion in not accepting his offer-in-compromise.
by John Colvin | Jun 14, 2017 | Tax Audit Help, IRS Audits and Appeals, IRS Audit, IRS Appeal, Tax Litigation
The IRS proposed estate tax deficiencies of hundreds of millions of dollars against the Estate of Michael Jackson, accusing the Estate of undervaluing the assets held by the King of Pop at his death. Much of the case has been settled, but the parties still dispute the value of the Gloved One’s image and likeness, with the IRS contending it was worth $161 million and the estate contending the value was far less. A trial on this issue (along with the value of certain music catalogues) was held in February of 2017.
by Cory Johnson | Jun 5, 2017 | Criminal Tax Defense
Michael Sorrentino, better known as “The Situation” on MTV’s popular reality show The Jersey Shore, was recently hit with a superseding indictment issued by the grand jury on April 7, 2017. The Situation had previously been charged, along with his brother, on September 24, 2014 with tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the IRS. Prosecutors allege that Sorrentino and his brother set up multiple businesses to profit from The Situation’s celebrity status during the heyday of The Jersey Shore phenomenon, and that they conspired to avoid paying tax on nearly $9 million earned just in the 2010-2012 period. According to the indictment, The Situation and his brother filed false returns claiming fraudulent deductions and underreporting business income, particularly by using S-corporations and non-issuance of 1099s to hide income, all the while using income from those businesses to fund their extravagant lifestyles, including the purchase of luxury vehicles.
by Cory Johnson | May 31, 2017 | IRS Audits and Appeals, International Compliance, IRS Audit, IRS Appeal, Tax Audit Help
The IRS is distancing itself from the advice it offers to taxpayers on its OWN website. The IRS announced on May 18th in Memorandum SBSE-04-0517-0030, that “FAQs that appear on IRS.gov but that have not been published in the Internal Revenue Bulletin (IRB) are not legal authority and should not be used to sustain a position.” Essentially the IRS has told its examiners that if a taxpayer relies on an FAQ on the IRS’s website, the examiner need not follow that authority and can find against the taxpayer unless the advice in the FAQ have been published in something that is “legal authority.” Many taxpayers might find it surprising that they can’t rely on what the IRS posts on its own website. We certainly did. Accordingly, before any taxpayer relies on the IRS website, the taxpayer should be sure there is other “legal authority.”
