Taxable Talk

Barry Ginsberg operated a payroll tax service in Peabody, Massachusetts (near Boston). He endorsed escrow accounts for his clients; they would send him the money for the payroll taxes and he, in turn, would pay them. Since I’m writing about this, you’ve already figured out where the money didn’t go: to the IRS and the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. Mr. Ginsberg, who was indicted back in 2013, pleaded guilty to multiple tax fraud charges on Friday.

Mr. Ginsberg operated a traditional payroll service. It’s fairly easy to check on your payroll company if you use such a service: Enroll in EFTPS. Using EFTPS you can verify that your payroll company is making the payroll deposits they say they are. That’s a good idea–trust but verify. The DOJ Press release notes:

To cover up his scheme, Ginsberg falsified his clients’ tax returns, which he was hired to prepare, indicating that the clients’ payroll taxes had been paid in full, when they had not. When asked by clients about their mysterious IRS debts, Ginsberg gave them a litany of false excuses, including blaming the IRS and his own staff.

None of those excuses work hold up with EFTPS. Today, payroll tax deposits with the IRS are all made electronically. Is it possible for one to get messed up? Yes, but it’s very unlikely. Indeed, most payroll companies just make sure the deposits are made from your payroll bank account.

Mr. Ginsberg will likely be spending years at ClubFed. Unfortunately, the business owners who trusted him may be spending years getting out of debt with the IRS and Massachusetts.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 28th, 2015 at 7:59 pm and is filed under Payroll Taxes, Tax Fraud. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.