Thursday, February 26, 2009

Tax Laws Of The United States

By Steve Johnes

Every government relies on the taxes dues from it citizens and businesses but there a number that try to avoid this responsibility. This is of course against the law and a person of company found attempting this act is committing a crime. Crimes of this nature are treated seriously and those guilty can expect the full force of the law as it undermines the running of a country. Most often these so called 'clean crimes' are carried out by what are considered respectable people that have not been in trouble with the law in the past.

The crime of Tax Fraud covers a wide range of crimes that include the serious offence of tax evasion to the more minor one of non-filing of a tax return. When situations like this occur, a tax fraud lawyer is employed to help individuals and companies accused of this offence.

Tax fraud lawyers have only one function and are not used for advice on how to plan for future tax commitments. Clients specifically employ them when they anticipate government interrogation regarding their taxes or after they have been charged for tax fraud. Though the issue is morally wrong, tax fraud lawyers work on ways to negotiate with tax authorities and help their clients legally evade taxes to a limited extent and mitigate their situation with regard to the charge of tax fraud.

Despite the serious nature of tax fraud, it is not always the fault of the person being investigated as ignorance of the laws can be to blame. It is also not unusual for people and companies to fall victim to the poor advice of tax consultants.

Often attorneys will provide proof that their client was the unwilling victim of tax fraud and although still guilty it is usual for the punishment in these circumstances to be more lenient or the charges dropped completely. The need to choose a tax consultant that has proper qualifications cannot be underestimated in circumstance like this if investigation by the IRS is too be avoided.

Although it would be normal for a custodial sentence to be passed the purpose of the tax fraud lawyer is to try and stop this from happening by negotiating with the authorities to allow the tax evader to escape imprisonment so they will be able to repay their tax debt. Sending a tax evader to prison just places additional costs on the system which are paid by other tax payers with little chance of the tax owed being paid so the argument to allow the offender to pay by installments will be made by a good attorney as the best in the public interest.

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