Jump to content
ATX Community

Something is wrong, they are licensed.


redux

Recommended Posts

I know that once we're all licensed with the new pending legislation, there will never again be any fraud committed in the tax industry...right?

Oops, these folks were already licensed, how could this have happened? What went wrong? I'll bet they even took CPEs in ethics. I don't understand it.

Indictment: Sept. 11 Used in Tax Fraud

Wednesday May 30, 5:30 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — A former top Internal Revenue Service lawyer and three other Ernst & Young partners reduced taxes for Americans making $10 million or more with a fraud that even used the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to disguise their lies, according to an indictment charging the men.

The four current and former partners of the giant accounting firm were arrested Wednesday and charged with fraud and other crimes relating to tax shelters that were devised beginning in early 1998, the indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan said.

http://finance.myway.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt_to...-d8peuqh00&

Link to comment
Share on other sites

>>these folks were already licensed, how could this have happened?<<

This sounds like a reasonable argument, but it doesn't work. I happen to know because I tried it myself last week when the cop pulled me over for my creative interpretation of certain traffic laws.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

>>these folks were already licensed, how could this have happened?<<

This sounds like a reasonable argument, but it doesn't work. I happen to know because I tried it myself last week when the cop pulled me over for my creative interpretation of certain traffic laws.

My best snappy comeback.....Oh Yeah!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Preparing taxes without a license is like driving a car without a license. It's not the license that makes you a better driver or a better tax preparer. A license does not make you more ethical, but it gives you something you have at least some incentive to protect. Also it is some evidence that you have the ability to meet the licensing requirements.

Licensing will not cure all problems but it could weed out some unqualified preparers and possibly force some of them to learn enough to move from the unqualified category to the qualified category.

Of course, like people who drive without a license, there will be people who would prepare taxes without a license.

James Bond has a license to kill, but there are a lot of unlicensed killers who do just as good a job as 007.

The best thing would be to get both a license to prepare taxes and a license to kill which would tend to reduce the number of clients who do not pay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Note they were all lawyers except one. What more could Ernst & Young have expected with hiring lawyers. Ernst & Young said in its statement that the men, none of whom was among the firm's management, were part of a small group within the firm that partook in the transactions. The group was disbanded years ago, the company said. Sorry E&Y, that is not an acceptable excuse.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The perpetrators of this fraud were probably highly qualified experts. The biggest frauds are always done by people who have a lot of expertise. Frequently they are successful, but in this case they got caught.

A big fraud, by its very nature, requires someone who has all the qualifications to obtain any license that might be necessary to pull it off. The purpose of licensing is not to prevent BIG fraud, but to prevent unqualified people from presenting themselves as qualified professionals.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

People come to my office with returns prepared by crooks but they do not sign the return. To the eyes of the IRS, these returns were self prepared and believe me, these tax payers (AKA crooks) know exaclty what's going on and still they go to this places to have their taxes prepared. I think there is no crook preparer without crook tax payer. Most of these tax payers go back to these places when I tell they that this year they will owe or their refund will be much less than that of last year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think there is no crook preparer without crook tax payer.

Yes, I think you are absolutely correct. You might get fooled once, but when you go back year after year to someone who won't sign the return, you must be aware that something is fishy. We are getting several people from a gentleman who passed away a couple of years ago. He never signed his returns and always overstated mileage, put charitable contributions on Sch C, or something. I always make the client bring me the old returns, point out all the errors, and let them decide if they want a correct signed return or not. It takes time to show them the errors, but then I just leave the ball in their court. I just let them decide, without trying to scare them or anything, cause if knowing the return is correct is not enough, I really don't want them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...