The Badges of Fraud

What are the Badges of Fraud?

Over the years, courts have developed a litany of so-called “badges” of fraud that may indicate that a taxpayer exhibited fraudulent intent.  These badges (or “flags” or indicators) of fraud may be used by the IRS as a basis to infer the existence of the level of intent necessary to assert a civil fraud penalty under Section 6663 of the Internal Revenue Code or, worse yet, to support criminal tax charges.

In evaluating the existence of fraud, courts look to the taxpayer’s entire course of conduct and no particular “badge” or indicator is essential or determinative.  In fact, in any given case, the government may consider the existence of one badge to be sufficient to establish fraud, and certainly, the existence of multiple badges together increases the taxpayer’s exposure.

The IRS has specifically recognized a thorough list of indicators of fraud over the years, and its agents are trained to identify those indicators.  A general summary of the types of indicators or badges that it looks for follows:

• Understatement of income (e.g., omissions of specific items or entire sources of income, failure to report substantial amounts of income received)
• Fictitious or improper deductions (e.g., overstatement of deductions, personal items deducted as business expenses)
• Accounting irregularities (e.g., two sets of books, false entries on documents)
• Obstructive actions of the taxpayer (e.g., false statements, destruction of records, transfer of assets, failure to cooperate with the examiner, concealment of assets)
• A consistent pattern over several years of underreporting taxable income
• Implausible or inconsistent explanations of behavior
• Engaging in illegal activities (e.g., drug dealing), or attempting to conceal illegal activities
• Inadequate records
• Dealing in cash and
• Failure to file returns.

Some of the more common badges, broken down by the context in which they arise, include:

Indicators of Fraud

Income

• Omitting specific items where similar items are included.
• Omitting entire sources of income.
• Failing to report or explain substantial amounts of income identified as received.
• Inability to explain substantial increases in net worth, especially over a period of years.
• Substantial personal expenditures exceeding reported resources.
• Inability to explain sources of bank deposits substantially exceeding reported income.
• Concealing bank accounts, brokerage accounts, and other property.
• Inadequately explaining dealings in large sums of currency or the unexplained expenditure of currency.
• Consistent concealment of unexplained currency, especially in a business not routinely requiring large cash transactions.
• Failing to deposit receipts in a business account, contrary to established practices.
• Failing to file a tax return, especially for a period of several years, despite evidence of receipt of substantial amounts of taxable income.
• Cashing checks, representing income, at check-cashing services, and at banks where the taxpayer does not maintain an account.
• Concealing sources of receipts by a false description of the source(s) of disclosed income, and/or nontaxable receipts.

Expenses or Deductions

• Claiming fictitious or substantially overstated deductions.
• Claiming substantial business expense deductions for personal expenditures.
• Claiming dependency exemptions for nonexistent, deceased, or self-supporting persons. Providing false or altered documents, such as birth certificates, lease documents, school/medical records, for the purpose of claiming the education credit, additional child tax credit, earned income tax credit (EITC), or other refundable credits.
• Disguising trust fund loans as expenses or deductions.

Books and Records

• Multiple sets of books or no records.
• Failure to keep adequate records, concealment of records, or refusal to make records available.
• False entries, or alterations made on the books and records; back-dated or post-dated documents; false invoices, false applications, false statements, or other false documents or applications.
• Invoices are irregularly numbered, unnumbered, or altered.
• Checks made payable to third parties that are endorsed back to the taxpayer. Checks made payable to vendors and other business payees that are cashed by the taxpayer.
• Variances between the treatment of questionable items as reflected on the tax return, and representations within the books.
• Intentional under- or over-footing of columns in journal or ledger.
• Amounts on tax return not in agreement with amounts in books.
• Amounts posted to ledger accounts not in agreement with sourcebooks or records.
• Journalizing questionable items out of the correct account.
• Recording income items in suspense or asset accounts.
• False receipts to donors by exempt organizations.

Allocations of Income

• Distribution of profits to fictitious partners.
• Inclusion of income or deductions in the tax return of a related taxpayer, when tax rate differences are a factor.

Conduct of Taxpayer

• False statement about a material fact pertaining to the examination.
• Attempt to hinder or obstruct the examination. For example, failure to answer questions; repeated canceled or rescheduled appointments; refusal to provide records; threatening potential witnesses, including the examiner; or assaulting the examiner.
• Failure to follow the advice of an accountant, attorney, or return preparer.
• Failure to make full disclosure of relevant facts to the accountant, attorney, or return preparer.
• The taxpayer’s knowledge of taxes and business practices where numerous questionable items appear on the tax returns.
• Testimony of employees concerning irregular business practices by the taxpayer.
• Destruction of books and records, especially if just after examination was started.
• Transfer of assets for purposes of concealment, or diversion of funds and/or assets by officials or trustees.
• Pattern of consistent failure over several years to report income fully.
• Proof that the tax return was incorrect to such an extent and in respect to items of such magnitude and character as to compel the conclusion that the falsity was known and deliberate.
• Payment of improper expenses by or for officials or trustees.
• Willful and intentional failure to execute pension plan amendments.
• Backdated applications and related documents.
• False statements on Tax Exempt/Government Entity (TE/GE) determination letter applications.
• Use of false social security numbers.
• Submission of false Form W-4.
• Submission of a false affidavit.
• Attempt to bribe the examiner.
• Submission of tax returns with false claims of withholding (Form 1099-OID, Form W-2) or refundable credits (Form 4136, Form 2439) resulting in a substantial refund.
• Intentional submission of a bad check resulting in erroneous refunds and releases of liens.
• Submission of false Form W-7 information to secure Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) for self and dependents.

Methods of Concealment

• Inadequacy of consideration.
• Insolvency of the transferor.
• Asset ownership placed in other names.
• Transfer of all or nearly all of the debtor’s property.
• A close relationship between parties to the transfer.
• Transfer made in anticipation of a tax assessment or while the investigation of a deficiency is pending.
• Reservation of any interest in the property transferred.
• Transaction not in the usual course of business.
• Retention of possession or continued use of an asset.
• Transactions surrounded by secrecy.
• False entries in books of transferor or transferee.
• Unusual disposition of the consideration received for the property.
• Use of secret bank accounts for income.
• Deposits into bank accounts under nominee names.
• Conduct of business transactions in false names.

Taxpayers with indicators of fraud should consult with a tax attorney to determine what exposure, if any, they may face under their particular facts—and what options they may have to address that exposure.  Often, proactive steps may be available to minimize (and in some cases even eliminate) that exposure.  A word of warning though: As any good attorney or accountant will tell you, conversations about prior fraud should only be had with an attorney.  The federal accountant-client privilege—unlike the common law attorney-client privilege—does not provide any protection in a criminal matter, and conversations with accountants and other tax professionals who are not attorneys are unfortunately entirely unprotected in that setting.  The last thing that you want to do is to inadvertently turn your accountant into a witness against you.

Expert Tax Fraud Defense Attorneys

Accused of tax fraud?  Contact us as soon as possible to discuss your rights and the ways we can assist in your defense. We handle all types of cases, including complex tax fraud allegations. Schedule a consultation or call (214) 984-3410 to discuss your tax fraud concerns or questions.