White Collar Tax Defense

Criminal tax charges turn on intent, not on the size of the bill. Most IRS investigations stay administrative, but when the government believes a taxpayer acted willfully, the same facts that would have produced a penalty can produce an indictment instead.

Only a small percentage of taxpayers ever face criminal charges. The cases that are brought usually involve intentional conduct, most often tax evasion or filing a false return, and they are often built quietly out of an audit that is already under way. Some start with an honest mistake, and some start with an IRS error.

How a civil matter becomes criminal

The dividing line is willfulness. A disputed deduction, a badly kept set of books, or an unpaid assessment stays a civil problem for as long as it is only a question of money. It becomes criminal when the government believes you concealed income, lied on a return, or claimed deductions you knew were unlawful.

An audit that suddenly goes quiet, or agents contacting your bank, your accountant, or your associates, often means the file has moved. IRS Criminal Investigation covers what that contact signals and why the answer is to stop talking and get counsel.

Charges we defend

• Tax evasion: willfully avoiding a tax that is owed, which is not the same as lawfully reducing what you owe.
• Tax fraud: false returns, false statements to the IRS, and records falsified to hide income or cash flow.
• Employment tax fraud: payroll tax that was withheld and never remitted.
• Refund and credit fraud, including prosecutions over Paycheck Protection Program loans and Employee Retention Credit claims.
• Money laundering counts, which the government frequently charges alongside a tax offense.

Non-filing sits slightly apart. It can be charged criminally, but most non-filing cases are better resolved on the civil side through back filings and a payment arrangement, before a willfulness narrative takes hold.

Building a defense

Willfulness is the government's burden and a demanding one. Good-faith compliance, reliance on a professional, and plain error are defenses rather than excuses, because fraud is a crime of intent. Federal investigators also make mistakes, and the record they assemble is open to challenge on its own terms.

Where the conduct predates any investigation, the IRS Voluntary Disclosure Practice can in the right case resolve exposure and reduce the risk of prosecution. Eligibility generally closes once the IRS has opened an examination or investigation, or has learned of the problem from a third party or from a criminal enforcement action such as a search warrant, so timing is the first thing we assess.