The Value of a Tax Attorney When Facing Tax Fraud Charges
Monday, November 25, 2019, 6:00 PM | Leave Comment
As a taxpayer in the United States, when the IRS needs to verify your tax returns, you must know better than to try and play games with the agency.
The federal and state governments take their mandate seriously when it comes to taxation, making it an aspect that you can never ignore.
Even at a time when, as an individual or business, you are struggling to address all your financial obligations, there is no room for making taxation errors.
As a way of ensuring full compliance, the taxman is ever on the lookout for any raised red flags that immediately lead to audit queries. Not only is there the intentional monitoring of taxpayers for any alarms, but there is also the regular and random selection of accounts for auditing.
While these are ways of keeping tabs on taxpayers, these initial audits can be the beginning of a complicated journey.
There are lots of taxation mistakes and errors that can be discovered during an audit, but the most severe crimes typically involve tax frauds. This is whereby the IRS realizes that there is intentional wrongdoing when it comes to how a taxpayer files their taxes.
These illegal acts are primarily to ensure that the taxpayer does get to pay the actual amount of taxes owed, in turn defrauding the government.
Overly, there are lots of situations that could result in a tax fraud case from failure to file tax returns and concealing of taxable assets to cooking up financial records and overstating deductions.
For these cases, the IRS has a special Criminal Investigations Department that takes over from the standard civil auditors. This department has extra far-reaching abilities, given their mandates that require them to take charge of cases within the United States and internationally.
While most investigations by the IRS Criminal Investigations Department arise from the referrals received by the standard civil auditors, whistleblowers can also see one undergo examinations.
Nevertheless, these cases are few, as most acts of tax fraud will attract the interest of the taxman sooner than later.
The primary reason why tax fraud charges are dreaded is that they are likely to lead to hefty penalties or criminal consequences.
It is, however, crucial to be aware that lots of these cases are minor, and while they are all punishable by law, it is possible to find a quicker resolution.
The IRS will be ingrained to seek prosecution if there are high amounts of money involved and noncooperation by the taxpayer.
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How To Avoid More Risks For Your Tax Fraud Charges
One thing you can be assured of is that the IRS is not going to handle investigations and the prosecution of tax fraud charges lightly.
While the primary goal by the agency is always to find the most straightforward resolution, the entire case can become too complicated if you lack the right approach.
Luckily, you do not have to bear these burdens alone when you can find refuge by hiring a tax fraud attorney.
It does not take any expert evaluation to realize that whether you are on the right or not, the odds are against you. This is because it is not every day that tax fraud charges are made against a taxpayer, and, when it happens, there is always a solid basis for the action. Therefore, taking a blind purge and facing the IRS Criminal Investigations Department alone leaves you too exposed and subject to severe consequences.
On the other hand, having a tax fraud attorney working on your case provides a channel for quickly resolving any disputes, even without the need for prosecution.
If the case goes to trial, you equally have the confidence of a reliable tax defense that significantly minimizes the penalties. The type of defense adopted by the attorney depends on the situations at hand, and it is near impossible to make an amateur guess on what to do. As such, right from the moment you receive a notice of being audited for tax fraud-related charges, the first professional to seek must be an attorney.
Unlike an accountant or any other professional, the attorney-client privilege offers the peace of mind that they will not throw you under the bus when things go astray. Instead, you will have the peace of mind that the attorney will be by your side till the very end, working to protect your rights.
