Protecting Clients from Fraud, Incompetence and Scams

Parts of this article are from the book published by John Wiley and Sons, Protecting Clients from Fraud, Incompetence and Scams, authored by Lance Wallach.

Every financial expert out there knows that bad faith and bad planning can take down even the biggest firms, wiping out millions of dollars of value in an instant. Whether it's internal fraud, a scammer, or an incompetent planner that takes your client's cash, the bottom line is: The money is gone and the loss should have been prevented.

Filled with authoritative advice from financial expert Lance Wallach, Protecting Clients from Fraud, Incompetence, and Scams equips you as an accountant, attorney, or financial planner with the weaponry you need to detect bad investments before they happen and protect your clients' wealth - as well as your own.

Sharp and savvy in its frank, often humorous, and authoritative examination of financial fraud and mismanagement, you'll learn about the dysfunctional sectors in the financial industry and:

• Protecting your retirement assets
• Asset protection basics
• Shifting the risk equation: insurance maneuvers
• Reevaluating existing insurance
• What financial advisors and insurance agents "forget" to tell their clients
• The truth about variable annuities
• What you must know about life settlements
• The smart way to approach college funding

The news for the past two years has been filled with gloom and dangers: Swindles, Bernie Madoff, rip-offs, and the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. But the party's over, and with that era done, it's more important than ever for you to perform the due diligence on all financial maneuvers affecting the money you oversee and provide your clients with assurance in the form of practical solutions for risk and asset management.

A pragmatic blueprint for identifying trouble spots you can expect and immediately useful solutions, Protecting Clients from Fraud, Incompetence, and Scams equips you with the resources, strategies, and tools you need to effectively protect your clients from frauds and financial scammers.

Herewith is an excerpt from Lance Wallach's book, Protecting Clients from Fraud, Incompetence and Scams:

The IRS has been cracking down on what it considers to be abusive tax shelters. Many of them are being marketed to small business owners by insurance professionals, financial planners, and even accountants and attorneys. I speak at numerous conventions, for both business owners and accountants. And after I speak, many people who have questions about tax reduction plans that they have heard about always approach me.

I have been an expert witness in many of these 419 and 412(i) lawsuits and I have not lost one of them. If you sold one or more of these plans, get someone who really knows what they are doing to help you immediately. Many advisors will take your money and claim to be able to help you. Make sure they have experience helping agents that have sold these types of plans. Make sure they have experience helping accountants who signed the tax returns. IRS calls them material advisors and fines them $200,000 if they are incorporated or $100,000 if not. Do not let them learn on the job, with your career and money at stake.

LANCEWALLACHEXPERTWITNESS.COM

Get Sued!

BY: Lance Wallach

The IRS is cracking down on what it considers to be abusive tax shelters. Many of them are being marketed to small business owners by insurance professionals, financial planners and even accountants and attorneys. I speak at numerous conventions, for both business owners and accountants. And after I speak, I am always approached by many people who have questions about tax reduction plans that they have heard about. Below are the most common.
419 tax reduction insurance plans

These come in various versions, and most of them have or will get the participant audited and the salesman sued. They purportedly allow the business owner to make a large tax-deductible contribution, and some or all of the contribution pays for a life insurance product. The IRS has been disallowing most versions of these plans for years, yet they continue to be sold. After everyone gets into trouble and the insurance agents get sued, the promoters of the abusive versions sometimes change the name of their company and call the plan something else. The insurance companies whose policies are sold are legitimate companies. What usually is not legitimate is the way that most of the plans are operated. There can also be a $200,000 IRS fine facing the insurance agent who sold the plan if Form 8918 has not been properly filed. I've reviewed hundreds of these forms for agents and have yet to see one that was filled out correctly.

When the IRS audits a participant in one of these plans, the tax deductions are lost. There is also the interest and large penalties to consider. The business owner can also be facing a $200,000-a-year fine if he did not properly file Form 8886. Most of these forms have been filled out improperly. In my talks with the IRS, I was told that the IRS considers not filling out Form 8886 properly almost the same as not filing at all.

412(i) retirement plans

The IRS has been auditing participants in these types of retirement plans. While there is generally nothing wrong with many of the newer plans, the IRS considered most of the older abusive plans. Forms 8918 and 8886 are also required for abusive 412(i) plans.

I have been an expert witness in a lot of these 419 and 412(i) lawsuits and I have not lost one of them. If you sold one or more of these plans, get someone who really knows what they are doing to help you immediately. Many advisors will take your money and claim to be able to help you. Make sure they have experience helping agents that have sold these types of plans. Don't let them learn on the job, with your career and money at stake.

Do not wait for IRS to come and get you, or for your client to sue you. Time is of the essence. Most insurance professionals need help to correct their improperly completed Form 8918 or to fill it out properly in the first place. If you have not previously filled out the form it is late, and therefore you should immediately seek assistance. There are plenty of legitimate tax reduction insurance plans out there. Just make sure that you know the history of the people with whom you conduct business.

Remember, if something looks too good to be true, it usually is. Be careful. 

LANCEWALLACHEXPERTWITNESS.INFO

Help With Common IRS Problems

Published in Coatings Pro Magazine

 Lance Wallach

It is tax time. There are many problems you can run into with the IRS. This article is a generalized overview of some of these confusing issues:

•    IRS Penalties
•    Unfiled Tax Returns 
•    IRS Liens
•    IRS Audits
•    Payroll Tax Problems
•    IRS Levies
•    Wage Garnishments
•    IRS Seizures

When dealing with the IRS, it can seem like they have all the power. That is not always true. As a small business owner--and a taxpayer--it is vital that you know your options and your rights.

 IRS Penalties

The IRS penalizes millions of taxpayers each year. In fact, they have so many penalties that it can be hard to understand which penalty they are hitting you with.

The most common penalties are Failure to File and Failure to Pay. Both of these penalties can substantially increase the amount you owe the IRS in a very short period of time.

To make matters worse, the IRS charges interest on penalties. Many taxpayers often find out about IRS problems many years after they have occurred. As a result, the amount owed the IRS is substantially greater due to penalties and the accumulated interest on those penalties. Some IRS penalties can be as high as 75% to 100% of the original taxes owed. Often taxpayers can afford to pay the taxes owed, but the extra penalties make it impossible to pay off the entire balance.

The original goal of the IRS imposing penalties was to punish taxpayers in order to keep them in line. Unfortunately, the penalties have turned into additional sources of income for the IRS. So they are happy to add whatever penalties they can and to pile interest on top of those penalties. Your loss is their gain.
It is important to know that under certain circumstances the IRS does abate, or forgive, penalties. Therefore before you pay the IRS any penalty amounts, you may want to consider requesting that the IRS abate your penalties.

Unfiled Tax Returns

Many taxpayers fail to file required tax returns for a variety of reasons. What you must understand is that failure to file tax returns may be construed as a criminal act by the IRS--a criminal act punishable by up to one year in jail for each year not filed. Needless to say, its one thing to owe the IRS money but another thing to potentially lose your freedom for failure to file a tax return.

The IRS may file “SFR” (Substitute For Return) Tax Returns on your behalf. This is the IRS’s version of an unfiled tax return. Because SFR Tax Returns are filed in the best interest of the government, the only deductions you’ll see are standard deductions and one personal exemption. You will not get credit for deductions to which you may be entitled, such as exemptions for a spouse or children, interest on your home mortgage and property taxes, cost of any stock or real estate sales, business expenses, etc.

Remember that regardless of what you have heard, you have the right to file your original tax return, no matter how late it is filed.

IRS Liens

The IRS can make your life miserable by filing Federal Tax Liens on your business or property. Federal Tax Liens are public records indicating that you owe the IRS various taxes. They are filed with the County Clerk in the county from which you or your business operates.

Because they are public records, they will show up on your credit report. This often makes it difficult to obtain financing on an automobile or a home. Federal Tax Liens can also tie up your personal property, meaning that you cannot sell or transfer that property without a clear title.

Often taxpayers find themselves in a Catch-22 in which they have property that they would like to borrow against, but because of the Federal Tax Lien, they cannot get a loan. Should a Federal Tax Lien be filed against you, a CPA can help get it lifted.

IRS Audits 

The IRS conducts multiple types of audits. They can audit you by mail, in their offices, in your office or home. The location of the audit is a good indication of the severity.

Typically, Correspondence Audits are conducted to locate missing documents in your tax return that have been flagged by IRS computers. These documents usually include W-2s and 1099 income items or interest expense items. This type of audit can typically be handled through the mail with the correct documentation.

The IRS Office Audit--held in IRS offices--is usually conducted by a Tax Examiner who will request numerous documents and explanations of various deductions. During this type of audit you may be required to produce all bank records for a period of time so that the IRS can check for unreported income.

The IRS Home or Office Audit--held in your home or office--should be taken very seriously as these are conducted by IRS Revenue Agents. Revenue Agents receive more training and learn more auditing techniques than typical Tax Examiners.
Of course, all IRS audits should be taken seriously as they often lead to examinations of other tax years and other tax problems not stated in the original audit letter.

Payroll Tax Problems

The IRS is very aggressive in their collection attempts for past-due payroll taxes. The penalties assessed on delinquent payroll tax deposits or filings can dramatically increase the total amount you owe in just a matter of months.

I believe that it is critical for business owners to have an attorney present in these situations. Your answers to the first five IRS questions may determine whether you stay in business or are liquidated by the IRS. We always advise clients to avoid meeting with any IRS representatives regarding payroll taxes until you have met with a professional to discuss your options.

IRS Levies--Bank and Wage 

An IRS Levy is an action taken by the IRS to collect taxes. For example, the IRS can issue a Bank Levy to obtain the cash in your savings and checking accounts. Or, the IRS can levy your wages or accounts receivable. The person, company, or institution that is served with the levy must comply or face its own IRS problems.

When the IRS levies a bank account, the levy can only be honored on the particular day on which the bank receives the levy. The bank is required to remove whatever amount of money is in your account on that day (up to the amount of the IRS Levy) and send it to the IRS within 21 days unless otherwise notified by the IRS. This type of levy does not affect any future deposits made into your bank account unless the IRS issues another Bank Levy.

An IRS Wage Levy is different. Wage Levies are filed with your employer and remain in effect until the IRS notifies the employer that the Wage Levy has been released. Most Wage Levies take so much money from the taxpayer’s paycheck that the taxpayer doesn’t even have enough money remaining to meet basic needs.
Both Bank and Wage Levies create difficult situations and should be avoided if possible.

Wage Garnishments

The IRS Wage Garnishment is a very powerful tool used to collect taxes that you owe through your employer. Once a Wage Garnishment is filed with an employer, the employer is required to collect a large percentage of each paycheck. The funds that would have otherwise been paid to the employee will then be paid to the IRS.
The Wage Garnishment stays in effect until the IRS is fully paid or until the IRS agrees to release the garnishment. Having wages garnished can create other debt problems because the amount left over after the IRS takes its cut is often small, so you may have difficulty with bills and other financial obligations.

IRS Seizures

The IRS has extensive powers when it comes to seizures of assets. These powers allow them to seize personal and business assets to pay off outstanding tax liabilities. Seizures typically occur when taxpayers have been avoiding the IRS.

Similar to levies and garnishments, seizures are one of the IRS’s ultimate invasive collection tools. They can seize cars, television sets, jewelry, computers, collectibles, business equipment, or anything of value, which can be sold in order to acquire the money the IRS wants to pay off your tax debts. If you are facing a seizure, you have a serious problem.

Hopefully this tax season will begin and end without any of these IRS issues coming into play. But if they do, help is out there. CPAs and attorneys can help you negotiate your rights should it become necessary.

The information provided herein is not intended as legal, accounting, financial or any type of advice for any specific individual or other entity. You should contact an appropriate professional for any such advice.

Lance Wallach, National Society of Accountants Speaker of the Year and member of the AICPA faculty of teaching professionals, is a frequent speaker on retirement plans, abusive tax shelters, financial, international tax, and estate planning.  He writes about 412(i), 419, Section79, FBAR, and captive insurance plans. He speaks at more than ten conventions annually, writes for over fifty publications, is quoted regularly in the press and has been featured on television and radio financial talk shows including NBC, National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and others. Lance has written numerous books including Protecting Clients from Fraud, Incompetence and Scams published by John Wiley and Sons, Bisk Education’s CPA’s Guide to Life Insurance and Federal Estate and Gift Taxation, as well as the AICPA best-selling books, including Avoiding Circular 230 Malpractice Traps and Common Abusive Small Business Hot Spots. He does expert witness testimony and has never lost a case. Contact him at 516.938.5007, wallachinc@gmail.com or visit www.taxadvisorexpert.com.

The information provided herein is not intended as legal, accounting, financial or any type of advice for any specific individual or other entity. You should contact an appropriate professional for any such advice.

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Bad Broker or Bad Luck?

Legal.com July 2011  By Lance Wallach

You’ve lost money in the market—maybe a substantial amount. Money you thought could be used to plan your future or maybe put your kids through school is now gone. You’re hurt, you’re angry, and we understand. Can you sue your broker, fund manager, or financial advisor? It depends.

The Big Question: Were You a Victim of Fraud or the Market? The big question is whether your broker did anything illegal. You can only sue if what your broker did was beyond just “bad” in the sense of “unfortunate” or even “awful.” Instead, there must have been actual wrongdoing.

Losing money in today’s bad market does not in and of itself give you the right to sue. Sometimes it is just bad luck. After all, investing — even in blue chip investments – carries risks, and the main risk is that the value of your investment could decline. What if your broker gave you bad advice? Again, it will depend on “how bad” the advice was. If your broker recommended investments that were in line with your investor profile and those recommendations were reasonable based on everything your broker knew or should have known, then no – you cannot sue. Well, what kind of bad behavior does leave them liable, you ask? Basically, there are four kinds of bad behavior that may give you the right to sue:

1. Lying or misrepresenting claims;
2. Your broker acting in his interests, not yours, by means of, among others, misrepresentation, churning, unsuitability, and lack of diversification;
3. Not following instructions including claims of unsuitability, lack of diversification, and breach of contract; and,
4. Unreasonable carelessness, like claims of breach of duty and negligence.

Call our office today for a free consultation with Lance Wallach, the nation’s foremost expert on financial advising, or visit www.financeexperts.org.

There are a number of different claims that can come out of these types of bad behavior, but fundamentally, if your broker didn’t do one or more of these things, there is no claim. To put it another way: if your broker followed your instructions, was always honest with you, and was reasonably careful, then you cannot sue him – even if his advice or your investments went horribly wrong.

So before suing or filing the paperwork for arbitration, take a deep breath and ask yourself if your broker lied, ignored instructions, or was unreasonably careless by putting his own needs and interests instead of yours. If you find yourself answering no to more than a few of these questions, then, sadly, your broker probably acted with the best intentions, and based on what he reasonably knew at the time, there is no liability.

You will notice that we did not answer the question, “What if my broker stole or embezzled money from my account?” That is because the answer is simple – sue them and report them to law enforcement. Theft is theft, whether it’s by your broker, a guy on a street corner with a gun, or that cousin you never really trusted. For example, two common criminal schemes involving investments and securities are the Ponzi scheme and the pyrimad scheme, though these tend to be complex and hidden. Sometimes theft is simpler. But the short answer is that theft is always actionable. For help with this or if you are still not sure, contact our offices today. As an expert witness, my side has never lost a case. I work with attorneys who will usually take these cases on a contingent basis, and who, more importantly, often obtain great results.


LANCEWALLACHEXPERTWITNESS.INFO 

Small Business Retirement Plans Fuel Litigation

By Lance Wallach, CLU, ChFC, CIMC

Small businesses facing audits and potentially huge tax penalties over certain types of retirement plans are filing lawsuits against those who marketed, designed and sold the plans. The 412(i) and 419(e) plans were marketed in the past several years as a way for small business owners to set up retirement or welfare benefits plans while leveraging huge tax savings, but the IRS put them on a list of abusive tax shelters and has more recently focused audits on them.

The penalties for such transactions are extremely high and can pile up quickly.
 There are business owners who owe taxes but have been assessed 2 million in penalties. The existing cases involve many types of businesses, including doctors’ offices, dental practices, grocery store owners, mortgage companies and restaurant owners. Some are trying to negotiate with the IRS. Others are not waiting. A class action has been filed and cases in several states are ongoing. The business owners claim that they were targeted by insurance companies; and their agents to purchase the plans without any disclosure that the IRS viewed the plans as abusive tax shelters. Other defendants include financial advisors who recommended the plans, accountants who failed to fill out required tax forms and law firms that drafted opinion letters legitimizing the plans, which were used as marketing tools.
A 412(i) plan is a form of defined benefit pension plan. A 419(e) plan is a similar type of health and benefits plan. Typically, these were sold to small, privately held businesses with fewer than 20 employees and several million dollars in gross revenues. What distinguished a legitimate plan from the plans at issue were the life insurance policies used to fund them. The employer would make large cash contributions in the form of insurance premiums, deducting the entire amounts. The insurance policy was designed to have a “springing cash value,” meaning that for the first 5-7 years it would have a near-zero cash value, and then spring up in value.
Just before it sprung, the owner would purchase the policy from the trust at the low cash value, thus making a tax-free transaction. After the cash value shot up, the owner could take tax-free loans against it. Meanwhile, the insurance agents collected exorbitant commissions on the premiums – 80 to 110 percent of the first year’s premium, which could exceed million.
Technically, the IRS’s problems with the plans were that the “springing cash” structure disqualified them from being 412(i) plans and that the premiums, which dwarfed any payout to a beneficiary, violated incidental death benefit rules.
Under §6707A of the Internal Revenue Code, once the IRS flags something as an abusive tax shelter, or “listed transaction,” penalties are imposed per year for each failure to disclose it. Another allegation is that businesses weren’t told that they had to file Form 8886, which discloses a listed transaction.
According to Lance Wallach, who testifies as an expert in cases involving the plans, the vast majority of accountants either did not file the forms for their clients or did not fill them out correctly.
Because the IRS did not begin to focus audits on these types of plans until some years after they became listed transactions, the penalties have already stacked up by the time of the audits.
Another reason plaintiffs are going to court is that there are few alternatives – the penalties are not appeasable and must be paid before filing an administrative claim for a refund.
The suits allege misrepresentation, fraud and other consumer claims. “In street language, they lied,” said Peter Losavio, a plaintiffs’ attorney in Baton Rouge, La., who is investigating several cases. So far they have had mixed results. Losavio said that the strength of an individual case would depend on the disclosures made and what the sellers knew or should have known about the risks.
In 2004, the IRS issued notices and revenue rulings indicating that the plans were listed transactions. But plaintiffs’ lawyers allege that there were earlier signs that the plans ran afoul of the tax laws, evidenced by the fact that the IRS is auditing plans that existed before 2004.
“Insurance companies were aware this was dancing a tightrope,” said William Noll, a tax attorney in Malvern, Pa. “These plans were being scrutinized by the IRS at the same time they were being promoted, but there wasn’t any disclosure of the scrutiny to unwitting customers.”
A defense attorney, who represents benefits professionals in pending lawsuits, said the main defense is that the plans complied with the regulations at the time and that “nobody can predict the future.”
An employee benefits attorney who has settled several cases against insurance companies, said that although the lost tax benefit is not recoverable, other damages include the hefty commissions – which in one of his cases amounted to 400,000 the first year – as well as the costs of handling the audit and filing amended tax returns.
Defying the individualized approach an attorney filed a class action in federal court against four insurance companies claiming that they were aware that since the 1980s the IRS had been calling the policies potentially abusive and that in 2002 the IRS gave lectures calling the plans not just abusive but “criminal.” A judge dismissed the case against one of the insurers that sold 412(i) plans.
The court said that the plaintiffs failed to show the statements made by the insurance companies were fraudulent at the time they were made, because IRS statements prior to the revenue rulings indicated that the agency may or may not take the position that the plans were abusive. The attorney, whose suit also names law firm for its opinion letters approving the plans, will appeal the dismissal to the 5th Circuit.
In a case that survived a similar motion to dismiss, a small business owner is suing Hartford Insurance to recover a “seven-figure” sum in penalties and fees paid to the IRS. A trial is expected in August.
But tax experts say the audits and penalties continue. “There’s a bit of a disconnect between what members of Congress thought they meant by suspending collection and what is happening in practice. Clients are still getting bills and threats of liens,” Wallach said. “Thousands of business owners are being hit with million-dollar-plus fines. … The audits are continuing and escalating. I just got four calls today,” he said. A bill has been introduced in Congress to make the penalties less draconian, but nobody is expecting a magic bullet.
“From what we know, Congress is looking to make the penalties more proportionate to the tax benefit received instead of a fixed amount.”


LANCEWALLACHEXPERTWITNESS.COM

How can a IRS Penalty Abatement help?

When the IRS assesses tax debt penalties, those penalties are added automatically to the taxpayer's account by the IRS computer system. Because of this, penalties are frequently added to a taxpayer's debt without taking his or her individual circumstances into account. And as you may have already discovered, IRS Tax Penalties can turn a fairly manageable debt into an overwhelming burden pretty much overnight. 

A proper Penalty Abatement requires very specific wording and a solid understanding of the relevant IRS Code and Procedure. Even if you had a good reason for not paying your taxes on time, it is often extremely difficult to get these penalties removed without professional help. 

In 2012, the IRS issued over $26,864,993,000.00 (that's 26.9 Billion Dollars) in penalties!

• Requesting a Penalty Abatement requires that you have a good reason. What qualifies as a good reason?
• It depends on the circumstances involved with your particular situation.
• The procedures for deciding who qualifies for a Penalty Abatement and for what reason seem to differ in each case.
• The best thing you can do is to request that the IRS abate your penalties by providing the circumstances surrounding your situation.