Latest news with #taxfraud
CBS News
a day ago
- Business
- CBS News
Northern California business owner in Fairfield accused of not paying $2 million in taxes
A business owner in Solano County is facing multiple federal charges for allegedly not paying more than $2 million in trust fund taxes, instead spending the money on luxury items, prosecutors said. Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith of the Eastern District of California announced on May 28 that a 41-count indictment was returned against 54-year-old Warren Soto Delfin of Fairfield. Delfin was the owner of five home health care businesses. Delfin's businesses accumulated more than $2 million in employment taxes between January 2018 and December 2022, prosecutors said. The taxes stem from amounts Delfin withheld from employee paychecks. Instead of paying the withholdings to the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors said he used the money on himself. Delfin allegedly spent the money on a Lamborghini, jewelry and real estate. Delfin was charged following an investigation by IRS Criminal Investigation and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. If convicted, Delfin faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each charged count.
CBS News
a day ago
- Business
- CBS News
Northern California business owner in Fairfield accused of not paying $2M in taxes
A business owner in Solano County is facing multiple federal charges for allegedly not paying more than $2 million in trust fund taxes, instead spending the money on luxury items, prosecutors said. Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith of the Eastern District of California announced on May 28 that a 41-count indictment was returned against 54-year-old Warren Soto Delfin of Fairfield. Delfin was the owner of five home health care businesses. Delfin's businesses accumulated more than $2 million in employment taxes between January 2018 and December 2022, prosecutors said. The taxes stem from amounts Delfin withheld from employee paychecks. Instead of paying the withholdings to the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors said he used the money on himself. Delfin allegedly spent the money on a Lamborghini, jewelry and real estate. Delfin was charged following an investigation by IRS Criminal Investigation and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General. If convicted, Delfin faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each charged count.
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Pardoned Or Not, ‘Chrisley Knows Best' About Tax Evasion
In 2022, Todd and Julie Chrisley were sentenced to prison for, among other things, tax fraud. The celebrity couple known best for their reality TV show titled 'Chrisley Knows Best' became famous, in part, for their impression of living a lavish lifestyle. However, it was all a sham, which led to them being convicted of financial crimes. In unexpected news, President Trump has pardoned the Chrisleys. This article discusses their crimes, how what they did for tax evasion differs from legal tax avoidance, and what their pardoning might mean for tax enforcement during Trump's second term. According to the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia, Todd and Julie Chrisley's fraudulent activity began when the couple defrauded community banks in Georgia. The couple used falsified bank statements, financial records, and personal financial information to obtain over $36 million in loans from these banks. Additionally, the Chrisleys provided false financial documents to the IRS, suggesting they made less money than expected. Reporting lower income than earned is tax fraud, leading to those charges. As time continued, the couple ran out of options to continue this fraud, which led to them filing for bankruptcy, ultimately casting a bright light on their fraudulent activity. While there was a host of financial crimes committed by the Chrisleys, their main issues ultimately came down to using fake tax information to obtain loans from financial institutions and then providing different false tax information to the taxing authorities, leading to them committing tax evasion. While even the IRS states that taxpayers are not required to pay more taxes legally than what the tax law explicitly specifies, they also cannot provide false information to lower their tax liabilities. This distinction often leads to taxpayers' confusion when assessing the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion. Tax avoidance occurs when taxpayers lower their tax liability via a deduction or credit. For instance, a taxpayer can buy a home by borrowing money and receive a mortgage interest itemized deduction. This deduction was passed into law by Congress to increase incentives for home ownership. While this activity results in the home owning taxpayer having a lower tax liability than a taxpayer who does not own a home, it is not considered evasion because it was legally obtained. Similar tax deductions exist for donating to charitable organizations, excessive healthcare expenses, paying state and local income taxes, among others. Taxpayers also might have legal tax avoidance by way of tax credits. Credits also lower a taxpayer's tax liability. However rather than reducing their taxable income, a tax credit lowers the taxes owed themselves. Because of this, tax credits are even more valuable than tax deductions. Common tax credits include the child tax credit, the lifetime learning tax credit, and the earned income tax credit. This decrease in tax liability via legal deductions and credits stands in stark contrast to the activities of Todd and Julie Chrisley, who only had lower tax liability because they underreported their income. Because their behavior was deliberate and careless, it was deemed tax evasion, which contributed significantly to the harsh sentence they faced. Furthermore, the Chrisley's also faced sweeping criticism by impeding the investigation process by not timely filing tax returns in many years as well as not cooperating with the tax authority. Trump pardoning Todd and Julie Chrisley for their crimes sends a message about the administration's stance on tax enforcement. In particular, the Chrisley family is connected with Trump as Todd and Julie's eldest daughter, Savannah, was among the limited speakers during the 2024 Republican National Convention. This connection parallels Trump's pardoning of Paul Walczak for his tax crimes. According to The New York Times, Walczak's mother attended a $1 million dinner supporting Trump. While it is not unusual for the President to issue pardons, especially when the individuals are connected with the President, the timing of this one is quite unusual as it took place during the first few months. Presidents typically reserve these pardons for the end of their term as the pardoning activity has the potential to signal policy and preferences that can impact their administration. In this case, Trump has signaled his willingness to overlook a relatively straightforward tax fraud among a celebrity couple, plausibly (and potentially solely) due to their support for him. According to Kiplinger, this action can signal Trump's willingness to condone these actions and activities to his supporters. A Forbes contributor suggests that Trump's decisions erode confidence in the tax system. The IRS continues to have a questionable future. According to The Washington Post, Trump has effectively removed any funding increases the agency was supposed to receive from the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Bloomberg reports that Trump's proposed $9.8 billion budget for the IRS would be approximately 20% lower than last year's budget of $12.3 billion. As the funding for the IRS continues to be under fire, these actions to pardon wealth tax cheats are yet another piece of the puzzle, creating the image that tax enforcement among wealthy taxpayers may be of low importance.
Forbes
4 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Trump's Pardons Of Tax Cheats Erode Confidence In The Tax System
CHRISLEY KNOWS BEST — "Chrisleys on Campus" Episode 306 — Pictured: (l-r) Todd Chrisley, Chase ... More Chrisley, Julie Chrisley Savannah Chrisley — (Photo by: Jason Davis/USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images) President Trump has pardoned at least five well-connected people who either plead guilty or were convicted of tax fraud and other crimes. His clear message: If you have political influence, cheating on your income tax is perfectly acceptable. That message is likely to further erode public confidence in the income tax system and increase public perceptions that the wealthy don't pay their fair share of taxes. And the pardons are likely to further lower morale at the IRS and the Justice Department, where investigators and attorneys worked for years to prosecute these cases of tax fraud. Trump's pardons came just months after he called former President Joe Biden's pardon of his son Hunter for tax fraud 'an abuse' and a 'miscarriage of justice.' Trump's own relationship with the tax system has been frought. In his 2016 campaign, he said avoiding taxes 'makes me smart.' While Trump's real estate dealings aggressively pushed the limits of permissible tax avoidance, the IRS never accused him of violating the law. In his second term as president, Trump plans to slash the IRS staff by 40 percent, including a 'high' level of cuts in its compliance staff. At the same time, Congress has eliminated all the agency's enforcement funding increases that were included in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. All these steps will limit the agency's ability to stop tax cheats. The IRS has had five commissioners since Trump took office. He has nominated former congressman Billy Long to take the post permanently. Long has called for abolishing both the income tax and the IRS, and has made a living in recent years promoting tax shelters and a covid-era tax credit the IRS has warned could be 'scams.' Now, Trump has pardoned: During Biden Administration, Trump was an aggressive critic of Biden's son Hunter, who pleaded guilty in 2024 of failing to pay more than $1.4 million in income taxes. One big difference between the Biden cases and the Trump pardons: Criminal tax charges typically are brought against those who also commit other major crimes, such as the Chrisley's bank fraud and Hutchinson's bribery, or in cases where employers steal payroll taxes from workers, as Walczak did. By contrast, it is rare for the government to charge criminal tax fraud that is unrelated to another major crime, as in Hunter Biden's case. Biden also was convicted of failing to disclose that he was a drug user when he applied for a handgun license. The question now: What impact will Trump's pardons, combined with his other words and actions, have on public attitudes towards the income tax system? In April, Gallup found that about 58 percent of those surveyed felt high income people pay too little in taxes. That percentage is up from 54 percent last year, but much lower than the more than 75 percent who felt that way 30 years ago. In a 2021 study, Harvard economist Stefanie Stantcheva found that about 80 percent of those she surveyed believed that high-income people were more likely to cheat on their taxes than others. In her 2017 book, Why Americans Are Proud To Pay Taxes, my Tax Policy Center colleague Vanessa Williamson showed that most Americans believed paying taxes is a civic duty and a moral obligation. But they feared that others did not share those views. Those studies suggest Americans are highly sensitive to tax avoidance by high-income people. How will Trump's pardons of wealthy, influential tax evaders change public attitudes about the tax system? We may soon find out.
Forbes
5 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
15 Tips To Help You Protect Yourself From Identity Theft And Related Tax Fraud
Pay attention to emails and other tricks. Identity theft remains a significant concern for taxpayers and the IRS—and it could get worse in the coming weeks. With summer on the way, identity fraud could peak—in 2024, consumers reported that most identity fraud incidents happened in the summer months, when spending is typically high. According to the Javelin Strategy & Research 2025 Identity Fraud Study, consumers lost a total of $27.2 billion in 2024 due to identity fraud, marking a 19% increase from the previous year. The increase in fraud, which includes new-account fraud, account takeover fraud, and existing card fraud, may be attributed to a rise in cyber attacks and data breaches, particularly those involving cloud service providers and data brokers. Those statistics are scary, but increased awareness can help. The more you know about how to protect yourself, the better chance you have of avoiding becoming a victim. Here are 15 tips to help you protect yourself from identity theft and tax fraud related to identity theft: Even if you are super diligent, the reality is that everyone is vulnerable to identity theft. Remember that lots of third parties have access to your data, including trusted advisors, merchants, health care providers and the government. If your data is compromised, take a deep breath and then make an effort to mitigate any damage to your credit or your accounts, including contacting your financial institution if you've detected fraud. You may need to get a new card, switch accounts, or even request a credit freeze (rules vary by state). Additionally, consider filing a complaint with the FTC at If the identity theft involves your taxes, respond immediately to any IRS notice and complete Form 14039, Identity Theft Affidavit, if necessary.
