UBS Client Is First to Be Charged in U.S. Tax Probe

UBS Client Is First to Be Charged in U.S. Tax Probe

www.bloomberg.com

April 2 (Bloomberg) -- A Florida accountant became the first U.S. taxpayer accused of hiding money in a UBS AG account after the Swiss bank provided U.S. authorities with information about some account holders.

The Justice Department accused Steven Michael Rubinstein, a chartered accountant in Boca Raton, Florida, of filing a false 2007 income tax return to hide dealings with UBS through a Swiss bank account he kept in the name of Hybridge International Ltd.

“Today is the first of the prosecutions” since UBS disclosed “the identities of taxpayers that were illegally using Swiss bank accounts to evade U.S. taxes,” R. Alexander Acosta, the U.S. attorney in Miami, said in a statement.

(visit the link for the full news article)


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This must be why UBS doesn't want their employees to make business trips to the US

While I can appreciate the efforts to pursue and prosecute those who intentionally try to evade paying their fair share of taxes, don't think that the Feds are only going after the BIG guys....

They are in full attack mode, anywhere, anytime, anyhow, they (FEDS) see an opportunity to bring monies back into the coffers, they will.

Whether it is going after the criminals, or merely eliminating numerous tax deductions, services etc..

The taxpayers lost half their ass with the latest bursting bubble and the FEDS are going to take the other half.

Chew on that for awhile and tell me why we continue to send the same people to Washington.



www.bloomberg.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This one puzzles me..

U.S. Sues 32 Individuals, Alleging $30 Million Tax Credit Scam Based on Sham Sales From Non-Existent Methane Production Facilities at Landfills

WASHINGTON, April 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United States has sued four Certified Public Accounts (CPA), 27 tax preparers and one other individual, seeking to bar them from promoting an alleged tax scam involving bogus income tax credits claimed for sham sales of methane from landfills, the Justice Department announced today.


According to the civil injunction lawsuit, filed in Tampa with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, George Calvert of Hernando Beach, Fla., and Gregory Guido of Lithia, Fla., concocted a scheme that involves creating bogus business records purportedly documenting sales of methane from landfills in Puerto Rico, Illinois, New York, Ohio and Connecticut. The suit alleges that there were no methane sales, but that the defendants helped their customers claim tax credits based on the purported sales. Federal law allows an income tax credit with respect to certain sales of fuel from non-conventional sources, including methane produced from landfills.


The government complaint alleges that Calvert and Guido promoted the scheme through tax preparers, who acted as sub-promoters. The tax preparers allegedly sold interests in the sham methane production facilities to thousands of customers in at least 14 states across the country and prepared income tax returns for their customers claiming more than $30 million in tax credits based on the sham methane sales.

This sounds illegal, but this is only a suit... could they have exploited a legal loophole ?

You would think someone would have been arrested for this widespread scam...

If it was legal and they can't be arrested, how can the suit win?

Have to keep an eye out for this one, unless as usual I missed something

It was never the governments' money to begin with.

[edit on 2-4-2009 by bubbabuddha]

I'm going to get flamed for this...

But how many more will have a similar last name?

I live in CT.and i can tell yuo right now, thier are no landfills here. Our garbage goes to Ohio to a landfill. Until a few years ago, it was incinerated t make electricity, a few citys north of me.