It wasn’t that big of a week on the tax fraud front, with the exception of the German-Liechtenstein scandal that’s still around. But there’s a smidgen here and there to report on.
In nearby Camarillo there’s a business owner who is finding out that concealing smidgens of revenues can be a big deal. Giancarlo Pertile was the owner of Art Marble Design until 2002 allegedly decided that if he didn’t tell his bookkeeper and accountant about some revenues he wouldn’t have to pay taxes on them. The government alleges that his corporate tax returns from 1998 through 2002 understated revenue, and his personal tax returns during the same period were also off. Mr. Pertile is looking at up to 25 years at ClubFed if found guilty on all charges.
Farmers have it tough. I worked in agriculture for many years and still have many friends who have to deal with freezes, water issues, and other thorny problems. But one way of helping your business is to undercount revenues. Of course, that’s illegal but they’ve got to catch you. That’s what a farmer in Austin, Minnesota did. Kevin J. Morse filed his taxes between 1996 and 2000 and showed that he owed less than $1,000 a year in taxes. That’s a neat trick when your gross income is about $1,000,000 and your net income is just under $700,000 each year. And when you’ve already been convicted once for tax evasion (for 1991-1994), it’s a safe bet that the IRS will be watching you carefully. And when an accountant tells you that you owe $100,000 in back taxes but you choose not to file the return (shades of Richard Hatch) you can bet that only bad things will happen. Mr. Morse is looking at some time at ClubFed and restitution.
It may just be a smidgen of stories but it does show that bad things happen if you choose to avoid taxes and get caught.