Tax Law

Supreme Court to Decide Tax Fairness Case Involving Sewer Fee Forgiveness

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide a case involving the interplay of sewer taxes and the equal protection clause. At issue is whether the city of Indianapolis violated the equal protection clause when it forgave future payments by taxpayers paying a sewer hook-up fee in installments, but refused to issue…

Nov 14, 2011 6:43 PM CST

Criminal Defense Lawyer Charged in Alleged $1.5M Fraud On Clients Obtained Under False Pretenses

A Texas criminal defense attorney has been arrested and criminally charged, along with two other defendants including his wife, for allegedly defrauding clients of nearly $1.5 million by persuading them, under false pretenses, to retain him to do their legal work in federal cases in Houston. Abraham Moses Fisch, 52,…

Oct 28, 2011 8:33 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: Lawyer Bloggers and Disclaimers; The ‘Ten Crack Commandments’ in Practice

Legal Blogging v. Advertising Late last week, the Virginia State Bar ruled that Richmond, Va., lawyer Horace Hunter, who posts at Richmond Criminal Defense News, sometimes about his own cases, must add a disclaimer to his blog to indicate that it’s advertising. Some legal bloggers are trying to figure out…

Oct 28, 2011 1:51 PM CDT

Ex-BigLaw Partner with Tax LLM Loses Law License for a Year for Failing to File State Returns

A New York real estate transactional lawyer who didn’t file state tax returns from 2001 to 2007 had sought a public censure. But a state appeals court suspended Roger Roisman’s law license for one year, saying that the reduced income and multiple serious health problems he experienced during that period…

Oct 25, 2011 5:11 PM CDT

Report: Swiss Banks Likely to Pay Billions, Name Secret Account-Holders to Settle US Probe

To settle a U.S. probe of offshore tax evasion, 11 financial institutions in Switzerland are likely not only to pay billions of dollars but to identify to the feds the 5,000 to 10,000 Americans who hold secret accounts there, Bloomberg reports in an article that relies on five unidentified sources.…

Oct 24, 2011 10:32 PM CDT

Ex-President of Ohio State Bar Is Cooperating with Feds in Tax Fraud Case

A senior partner of Thompson Hine who formerly served as president of the Ohio State Bar Association is cooperating with federal prosecutors after being charged with tax fraud (PDF). Leslie W. “Les” Jacobs, 66, acknowledged in an interview that he had made fraudulent tax filings prior to 2008 and called…

Oct 17, 2011 11:15 PM CDT

Reagan Speech on Taxing Millionaires Goes Viral After Georgetown Law Grad Takes Notice

A 1985 speech by President Reagan calling for fair taxation of millionaires had only 800 views before Georgetown University law grad John Craig located the video posted by the Reagan Foundation. Craig was interning for the liberal group Center for American Progress when he found the video, the Washington Post…

Oct 13, 2011 10:30 AM CDT

Lawyer Gets 10 Days for Failing to File State Income Tax Returns

A practicing lawyer in Maine who fell behind on his state taxes will be spending approximately a week in jail. Alan Harding, 58, was sentenced to 120 days, with all except 10 days suspended, after pleading guilty in the Kennebec County Superior Court case to failing to file state income…

Oct 4, 2011 7:17 PM CDT

Ex-Partner at Major Firms Settles with DOJ, Will Stop Promoting Tax Shelters, Turn Over Client Names

A former partner at two well-known Chicago-based law firms has reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice concerning alleged sham tax shelters involving distressed foreign debt. John E. Rogers will stop promoting the tax shelters to clients as part of his pact in the Chicago federal district court…

Oct 4, 2011 5:39 PM CDT

US Tax-Evasion Probe Is Eyeing Americans with Offshore Accounts Tied to Israel Banks

An ongoing Internal Revenue Service probe of Americans who have evaded income tax by keeping assets in offshore bank accounts is now looking at a number of financial institutions in Israel. It appears that some individuals shifted funds to Swiss branches of Israel banks when Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS AG,…

Sep 16, 2011 4:57 PM CDT

10th Circuit Suspends Lawyer for ‘Meritless Contentions,’ Says $16K in Prior Fines Didn’t Deter Him

Saying that nearly $16,000 in fines imposed on an Illinois lawyer for unethical conduct in earlier federal cases didn’t have the desired deterrent effect, a federal appeals court has now suspended him indefinitely from practice in that jurisdiction for making frivolous arguments in an appeal of a tax lien foreclosure.…

Sep 15, 2011 5:23 PM CDT

Ex-Prosecutor in NJ and Veteran Md. Defense Lawyer Take Plea in Tax Cases; Both to Be Disbarred

A New Jersey criminal defense lawyer who formerly worked as a Hudson County prosecutor had taken a plea in a tax evasion case and agreed to give up his law license. Francis S. Cutruzzula, 48, admitted to a federal judge in Newark today that he hadn’t filed a tax return…

Sep 14, 2011 11:35 PM CDT

Suit Challenges Fee of $25 to Visit Arizona Inmates

A new Arizona law authorizes prisons to charge a one-time fee of $25 to adults who visit prisoners. The Tempe-based group Middle Ground Prison Reform has challenged the fee in a lawsuit (PDF), the New York Times reports. The complaint alleges the fee is an unconstitutional tax on a single…

Sep 6, 2011 3:34 PM CDT

Tax Court Finds Shelters Promoted by Former Seyfarth Lawyer Are Invalid

The U.S. Tax Court ruled Thursday that the tax benefit transactions touted to clients by Chicago-based lawyer John Rogers are invalid. Rogers was sued by the U.S. Justice Department last year to prevent him from promoting the deals, dubbed Distressed Asset Debt and Distressed Asset Trust tax shelters by the…

Sep 2, 2011 8:54 PM CDT

Criminal Defense Lawyer Accused of Hoarding $1.3M in Client Payments to Evade Income Tax

A Maryland criminal defense lawyer is facing a federal tax evasion case after allegedly hoarding $1.3 million in cash payments from clients over a six-year period in order to conceal his income. Federal authorities found $1.5 million in two safes when they raided the home and law office of Stanley…

Aug 30, 2011 11:50 PM CDT