As received at 02:25 PM 7/29/08

IRS to CPA: LIE & RAT & GET A REWARD

New IRS Bounty Programs Pays CPAs Even If They Deliberately Cause Their Clients to Owe Tax, Penalties & Interest & Lie to the Clients

Today in a Los Angeles Superior Court, Joe Francis, a man facing criminal allegations from the RS began a frontal assault on a little known IRS bounty program that rewards tax return preparers if they make mistakes that cause their clients to owe taxes, penalty and interest to the IRS, even if the CPA planned and initiated the actions that led to the tax problems and even if the client was never told there was any problem with the tax conduct of the client. Welcome to the new IRS: liars & rats welcome.

Rats are usually reserved for snacking on garbage. Now the IRS is giving them a big chunk of cheese to plague us with them, bubonic style. According to the IRS own website, a rat can collect. According to the IRS's own informant rules, causing your clients to be accused of fraud can "make a big difference" for the rat, with added bonuses, and a longer period of time to collect, especially if you get them placed in jail. And, as the website explains, it's okay if the rat "planned and initiated the actions" that "led to the violation of the law," still allowing a reward.

See, www.irs.gov/compliance/article/0,,id+181290,00.html

It's a rat trap where the rats write the rules, the rats get the cheese, and their clients get trapped. 

"IRS informant rules permit a CPA who actually plans and initiates the tax return mistakes to still collect the tax rat reward, which can be as high as $10,000,000," noted Robert Bernhoft, the attorney for a businessman challenging the program and suing his former CPA who sought to do precisely that. "If the case makes the client an accused criminal, the tax rat gets even more. Outraged American taxpayers should demand an immediate end to this IRS-Gone Wild program," Bernhoft noted.

Where is a good exterminator when you need one?

Here is the complaint:  Francis vs Barrett, SC099133

ABOUT BERNHOFT LAW
Bernhoft Law is one of the nation's leading boutique law firms specializing in complex litigation in federal criminal and civil courts and international asset fraud recovery. Robert Bernhoft and Robert Barnes of the firm obtained felony acquittals for the actor Wesley Snipes. Mr. Bernhoft also previously obtained acquittals on all felony counts for former IRS investigator Joe Bannister (a trial memorialized in Pulitzer Prize-winning David Cay Johnston’s “Perfectly Legal”).

Bernhoft Law has offices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Malibu, California.
Website: www.bernhoftlaw.com