Accountants, Business, Owners and others Fined 200k by IRS

November 1, 2009
By Lance Wallach

If you are an accountant, insurance professional, or small business owner you may be in big trouble and not know it. IRS has been fining people like you $200,000. Most people that have received the fines were not aware that they had done anything wrong. What is even worse is that the fines are not appeal-able. This is not an isolated situation. This has been happening to a lot of people.

Over the last few years I have received thousands of phone calls from accountants and business owners who are in, or will potentially be in the above situation. Life insurance agents continue to sell so called 419 and 412 (i) plans. The IRS has been calling many of these plans listed transactions. They have been auditing. What is worse is that they have been fining participants and their accountants $200, 000. Think this can’t happen to you? If you have small business owner clients that are successful it probably will.

Currently, the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) has the discretion to assess hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties under §6707A of the Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) in an attempt to curb tax avoidance shelters. This discretion can be applied regardless of the innocence of the taxpayer and was granted by Congress. It works so that if the IRS determines you have engaged in a listed transaction and failed to properly disclose it, you will be subject to a potentially draconian penalty regardless of any other facts and circumstances concerning the transaction. For some, this penalty has been assessed at almost a million dollars and for many it is the beginning of a long nightmare.

The IRS may call the accountant
you a material advisor and fine you $200,000.00. The IRS may fine your clients over a million dollars for being in a retirement plan, 419 plan, etc. As you read this article, hundreds of unfortunate people are having their lives ruined by these fines. You may need to take action immediately. The Internal Revenue Service said it will extend until the end of 2009 a grace period granted to small business owners for collection of certain tax-shelter penalties.

There are currently 34 listed transactions, including certain retirement plans under Code section 412(i) and certain employee welfare benefit plans funded in part with life insurance under Code sections 419A(f)(5), 419(f)(6) and 419(e). Many of these plans were implemented by small business seeking to provide retirement income or health benefits to their employees.

Strict liability requires the IRS to impose the 6707A penalty regardless of innocence of a person (i.e. whether the person knew that the transaction needed to be reported or not or whether the person made a good faith effort to report) or the level of the person’s reliance on professional advisors. A Section 6707A penalty is imposed when the transaction