Although tax avoidance planning is legal, tax evasion – reducing the amount of tax owed through deceit, fraud, or concealment – is not. Frequently what sets tax evasion apart from tax avoidance is the IRS’s finding that there was fraudulent intent on the part of the business owner. The following are four of the areas the IRS examiners commonly focus on as pointing to possible fraud:
- Failure to report substantial amounts of income such as a shareholder’s failure to report dividends or a store owner’s failure to report a portion of the daily business receipts.
- Claims for fictitious or improper deductions on a return, such as a sales representative’s substantial overstatement of travel expenses or a taxpayer’s claim of a large deduction for charitable contributions when no verification exists.
- Accounting irregularities such as a business’s failure to keep adequate records or a discrepancy between amounts reported on a corporation’s return and amounts reported on its financial statements.
- Improper allocation of income to a related taxpayer in a lower tax bracket, such as where a corporation makes distributions to the controlling shareholder’s children.