Taxable Talk

I’d like to convince my clients to start adding gratuities when they pay me. I did have one client just add $10 to his payment (and yes, I’ll be claiming that on my tax return); I appreciated it and told him so. I really don’t expect to receive tips from clients–it’s not the norm for tax preparation. I definitely don’t expect to receive $1,458,905 in such gratuities.

Yet one pair of tax preparers apparently did receive such money. Rigoberto Cabrera and Carlos Perez of Miami had a good thing going…for awhile. They convinced some individuals that they could get taxpayers really big tax refunds. Of course, those refunds were based on phony tax credits and deductions that the taxpayers weren’t entitled to. All they asked in return was part of the refunds back. That’s not much to ask for, right?

I didn’t think so, until I read this line in the Department of Justice press release:

Through this scheme, the defendants claimed approximately $1,458,905 in tax refunds from the IRS.

Now, it’s not clear from the press release whether the $1.46 million is the total of refunds (what I assume) or the defendants’ share. No matter, it’s a lot of money. Mr. Perez earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy. Mr. Cabrera was found guilty on 29 counts of conspiracy, fraud, making false claims to the IRS, and money laundering. Both are looking at ClubFed in their future; Mr. Cabrera is liking to be spending many, many years there.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 17th, 2013 at 8:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.