Taxation & Estate Planning

The IRS Turncoat

By Darrin Mish

The IRS has its share of turncoats who turn against it after having worked for it before. A former IRS agent, Thomas W. Steelman, 72 of Blue Springs, Mo. was sentenced to 46 months in prison and fined $10.6 million in restitution to the IRS for his role in a fraudulent tax deduction scheme. The scheme was offered by a now defunct company, Renaissance – The Tax People. Steelman and at least half a dozen others, including Michael Craig Cooper, 53 the founder of Renaissance pleaded guilty to several counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and forging federal income tax returns claiming excessive amounts of Form W-4 exemptions.

The perpetrators of the crime launched the fraudulent tax deduction scheme and when members of the public enquired or expressed their objections to the scheme, Steelman used his background as a former IRS agent to reassure them claiming that "numerous experts have reviewed the scheme and had approved of it."

The investigations were jointly conducted by the IRS, the US Postal Inspection Service and the US Department of Justice Tax Department.

Darrin T. Mish is a veteran, nationally recognized tax attorney who has focused on providing IRS help to taxpayers for almost two decades. He regularly travels the country training other attorneys, CPAs and enrolled agents on how to handle their toughest cases with the IRS. He is highly ranked among the top attorneys in the country, with an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell and a perfect 10 on Avvo.com. Martindale-Hubbell has also honored him with a listing in their Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. He is a member of the American Society of IRS Problem Solvers and the Tax Freedom Institute. With clients on every continent but Antarctica, he has what it takes to solve your IRS problems no matter where you live in the world. If you would like more information about his practice and how he can help you, please call his office at (813) 229-7100 or toll free at 1-888-GET-MISH.

Full post as published by IRS Problem Solver Blog on August 31, 2009 (boomark / email).