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 Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2011 6:10 pm Post subject: |
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PRODUCERSWEB.com
For Smart Advisors
Get Sued
By Lance Wallach Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The IRS is cracking down on what it considers to be abusive tax shelters. Many of them are being marketed to small business owners by insurance professionals, financial planners and even accountants and attorneys. I speak at numerous conventions, for both business owners and accountants. And after I speak, I am always approached by many people who have questions about tax reduction plans that they have heard about. Below are the most common.
419 tax reduction insurance plans
These come in various versions, and most of them have or will get the participant audited and the salesman sued. They purportedly allow the business owner to make a large tax-deductible contribution, and some or all of the contribution pays for a life insurance product. The IRS has been disallowing most versions of these plans for years, yet they continue to be sold. After everyone gets into trouble and the insurance agents get sued, the promoters of the abusive versions sometimes change the name of their company and call the plan something else. The insurance companies whose policies are sold are legitimate companies. What usually is not legitimate is the way that most of the plans are operated. There can also be a $200,000 IRS fine facing the insurance agent who sold the plan if Form 8918 has not been properly filed. I've reviewed hundreds of these forms for agents and have yet to see one that was filled out correctly.
When the IRS audits a participant in one of these plans, the tax deductions are lost. There is also the interest and large penalties to consider. The business owner can also be facing a $200,000-a-year fine if he did not properly file Form 8886. Most of these forms have been filled out improperly. In my talks with the IRS, I was told that the IRS considers not filling out Form 8886 properly almost the same as not filing at all.
412(i) retirement plans
The IRS has been auditing participants in these types of retirement plans. While there is generally nothing wrong with many of the newer plans, the IRS considered most of the older abusive plans. Forms 8918 and 8886 are also required for abusive 412(i) plans.
I have been an expert witness in a lot of these 419 and 412(i) lawsuits and I have not lost one of them. If you sold one or more of these plans, get someone who really knows what they are doing to help you immediately. Many advisors will take your money and claim to be able to help you. Make sure they have experience helping agents that have sold these types of plans. Don't let them learn on the job, with your career and money at stake.
Do not wait for IRS to come and get you, or for your client to sue you. Time is of the essence. Most insurance professionals need help to correct their improperly completed Form 8918 or to fill it out properly in the first place. If you have not previously filled out the form it is late, and therefore you should immediately seek assistance. There are plenty of legitimate tax reduction insurance plans out there. Just make sure that you know the history of the people with whom you conduct business.
Remember, if something looks too good to be true, it usually is. Be careful.
Lance Wallach, the National Society of Accountants Speaker of the Year, speaks and writes extensively about retirement plans, Circular 230 problems and tax reduction strategies. He speaks at more than 40 conventions annually, writes for over 50 publications, is quoted regularly in the press, and has written numerous best-selling AICPA books, including Avoiding Circular 230 Malpractice Traps and Common Abusive Business Hot Spots. Contact him at 516.938.5007 or visit .vebaplan.com.
The information provided herein is not intended as legal, accounting, financial or any other type of advice for any specific individual or other entity. You should contact an appropriate professional for any such advice.
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| Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 1:16 pm Post subject: |
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Apply to join FinanceExperts.org, the leading organization for accounting, legal, insurance, finance, and other experts in related fields. If approved by our board,you will be allowed to co author articles written by our experts which appear in 51 national publications, be quoted in best selling books that our experts author and much much more.. In addition, business owners and high income people are referred to our experts by zip code. No more than 1000 experts are accepted as members, and no more than one expert per zip code.There are currently 17 openings. You do not have to be a member to use the financeExperts.org message forum. Email your bio to lanwalla@aol.com. If approved you will be notified.All the experts share the cost of running the organization, which is about $97 per member per year. That cost will go down for renewals, as the sponsors start paying more.
Good luck.
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lance wallach
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| Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2011 1:31 pm Post subject: |
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WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW CAN HURT YOU – AVOID
EXPOSURE TO SEVERE PENALTIES
Welfare benefit plans are a creation of and are sanctioned by Section 419 of the Internal Revenue Code. There are single employer plans and multiple employer plans; the latter rely mostly on IRC Section 419A (f) (6) (in the most common cases where there are ten or more employers as part of the same plan). The 419A(f)(6) plans are, and perhaps always were, generally regarded as abusive, and were substantially curtailed in recent years by harsh IRS regulation. Amazingly, however, they refuse to totally die, and are still being marketed. There is absolutely no doubt that these plans are what are called listed transactions (more on that later). Single employer plans are now more popular. All welfare benefit plans tend to share certain characteristics, however. They tend to be marketed most frequently by insurance agents and financial planners, and sometimes by accountants and attorneys. Prospects tend to be professionals and profitable small businesses. The most attractive selling point is the ability to claim large tax deductions. Life insurance tends to be the funding vehicle. Often cheap term insurance is purchased for rank and file workers and some form of permanent coverage (universal life, variable life, etc., for the owners and key employees. For businesses looking to do as little as possible for workers, a selling point is that the great majority of benefits, in most cases, eventually go to the owners. This type of discrimination was recently addressed by IRC Notice 2007-84, which disallowed tax deductions and penalties with respect to welfare benefit plans that discriminate. If done correctly, the plans can accomplish things like facilitating estate planning, business succession, and asset protection. But the promised tax deduction is usually the sizzle that sells the steak.
In October of 2007, welfare benefit plans were affected by IRS rulings. The two most important developments were Revenue Ruling 2007-65, which declared, in essence, that premiums paid inside of a welfare benefit plan for cash value life insurance were not tax deductible, and Notice 2007-83, which identified the trust within welfare benefit plans involving cash value life insurance policies, AND substantially similar arrangements, as listed transactions. In other words, in essence, not only are premiums paid for cash value life insurance policies in welfare benefit plans not tax deductible, but, and far ,more importantly, the plans themselves are now listed transactions. This designation creates disclosure obligations with absurdly harsh penalties both for failure to disclose or incorrectly or incompletely disclosing, as we shall soon see.
Any practitioner who has clients in these plans must proceed with utmost caution, both for the client’s sake and his own. A listed transaction, basically, is any transaction identified as such by specific IRS guidance OR any transaction substantially similar to the specifically identified transaction. Participants in listed transaction must file Form 8886 with both the Service and the Office of Tax Shelter Analysis. Failure to timely and completely file leads to penalties of $100,000 for individuals and $200,000 for corporate taxpayers.
The practitioner has filing requirements, also, which can lead to equally severe penalties, if the practitioner qualifies as a “material advisor” with respect to one of these transactions. What is a material advisor? Basically, someone who gives advice, sells, or otherwise plays a significant part in the promotion, sale, or paperwork with respect to a taxpayer’s participation in a listed transaction. Put simply, from an accountant’s standpoint, you must give advice, the client must do it, and you must satisfy a certain income threshold with respect to the transaction, usually $10,000. The accountant who signs a return taking a tax deduction with respect to the transaction is surely a material advisor.
A problem is that many accountants are not even aware of these plans. Often it is discovered when preparing the client’s tax return, at which point the client expects you to allow the deduction and sign the return, since the client was sold a tax deduction. Or worse yet, the deduction may already have been disallowed on audit. The point is that, far too frequently, the practitioner does not even discover a client’s involvement in a listed transaction until too much damage has already been done. This is often the case if the contribution has already been made, as it usually has, and irretrievably so if the deductions have already been disallowed on audit. And added to all of this is the distaste that most professionals must have for all of these policing types of duties, to say nothing of the difficulties that are created with clients and, probably, the loss of some clients.
The material advisor must file Form 8918 describing his exact role in the client’s participation in the transaction. Failure to file can lead to penalties imposed on the advisor that are as unreasonably severe as these imposed on taxpayers ($100,000 for individuals and $200,000 for corporations) who fail to file Form 8886. The accountant may escape material advisor status by not meeting the $10,000 income threshold. A problem, however, is the accountant who is paid $10,000 in the aggregate by the client, but not that much specifically with respect to the listed transaction. Does such a person satisfy the income threshold? The author and his associates have discussed this point, among others, directly with IRS personnel who actually wrote published guidance in this area. They have not been very forthcoming; an unequivocal answer has been unobtainable. The best we have been able to get is a declaration that any test that would be applied to the determination of any of these issues would have to consider all surrounding facts and circumstances. This would be unlikely to yield any general rules, for each situation has its own facts and circumstances.
Another section that the practitioner, or at least the prudent one, should be aware of, largely apart from what has been discussed so far in this article, is Section 6701, entitled” penalties for aiding and abetting understatement of tax liability.” This penalty is imposed upon those who assist in, procure, or advise while knowing or having reason to believe that the subject matter will be used in connection with any material matter arising under the tax laws and who know that the use thereof would result in the understatement of another person’s tax liability. The penalty may be applied separately to each occurrence, and it is $1,000 if an individual is the taxpayer and $10,000 for a corporate taxpayer. Someone furnishing only what could be described as ministerial assistance is not subject to these penalties; this is not aiding and abetting. Also, for whatever it is worth, no one penalized under section 6701 is subject to section 6694 return preparer penalties, which are far less Draconian than what has been heretofore discussed, generally being limited to the fee for the particular engagement.
Three (3) definitions are now in order, which will hopefully help to clarify any confusion that may exist in the reader’s mind. A “material advisor” is any person who provides any material aid, assistance, or advice with respect to organizing, managing, promoting, selling, implementing, insuring, or carrying out any reportable transaction, and who directly or indirectly derives gross income in excess of a certain threshold amount. More on threshold soon, but the most common one is $10,000 for listed transactions. A “reportable transaction”, basically, is any transaction which has been deemed to have a potential for tax avoidance or evasion. That is pretty broad, and the reader should consult the regulations under section 6011 for more on this. Finally, a “listed transaction” is a reportable transaction which is identical or substantially similar to a transaction specifically identified as a tax avoidance transaction.
As for threshold amounts, in the case of reportable transactions, it is $50,000, if substantially all tax benefits are provided to natural persons, and $250,000 in other cases. Natural person is construed most broadly, generally ignoring trusts, corporations, and other such entities. For listed transactions, the numbers are $10,000 (previously discussed) and $25,000.
Lance Wallach speaks and writes about benefit plans, and has authored numerous books for the AICPA, Bisk Total tape, and others. He can be reached at (516) 938-5007 or lawallach@aol.com. For more articles on this or other subjects, feel free to visit his website at vebaplan.com.
The information contained in this article is not intended as legal, accounting, financial or any other type of advice for any specific individual or entity. You should seek such advice from an appropriate professional.
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| Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2011 4:56 pm Post subject: |
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The IRS Raids Plan Promoter Benistar.
By Lance Wallach
Recently IRS raided Benistar and its successor, the Grist Mill Trust, the promoter and operator of one of the better known and more heavily scrutinized of the Section 419 life insurance plans. IRS attacked the Benistar 419 plan, and one of its tactics was to demand the names of all the clients Benistar worked with — so they could be audited by the IRS, Benistar refused to give the names and actually appealed the decision to turn over the names. The appeal was unsuccessful, but Benistar officials still refused to give up the names. Recently, the IRS raided the Benistar office and took hundreds of boxes of information, which included information on clients who were in their 419 plan. In documents filed by Benistar itself, they stated that 35 to 50 armed IRS agents descended upon their office to seize documents.
IRS has visited, and is still visiting most of the other plans and obtaining names of participants, selling insurance agents, accountants, etc. They have a whole task force devoted to auditing 419, 412i and other abusive plans.
It’s important to understand what could happen to unsuspecting business owners if they get involved in plans that are not above board. Their names could be turned over to the IRS, where audits could ensue, and where the outcome could be the payment of back taxes and significant penalties. Then they would be fined another time under Section 6707A for not properly reporting on themselves.
Most 419 life insurance and 412i defined benefit pension plans were sold to successful business owners as plans with large tax deductions where money would grow tax free until needed in retirement. I would speak at national accounting and other conventions talking about the problems with most of these plans. I would be attacked by some attendees who where making large insurance commissions selling the plans. I would try to warn insurance company home office executives, but they too had their heads in the sand because of all the money these plans brought in. Then the IRS got tough and started fining the unsuspecting business owners hundreds of thousands a year for not reporting on themselves for being in the plan. The agents and insurance companies advise against filing. “This is a good plan. We have approval.” Not only were the business owners fined under IRS Code 6707A, but the insurance agents were also fined $100,000 for not reporting on themselves. Accountants who signed tax returns are even being fined 100,000 by IRS. Then the business owners sue the accountants, insurance agents, etc. I have been following these scenarios for a long time. In fact, I have been an expert witness in many of these cases, and my side has never lost.
Most promoters of 419 plans told clients that their plans complied with the laws and, therefore, were not listed tax transactions. Unfortunately, the IRS doesn’t care what a promoter of a tax-avoidance plan says; it makes its own determination and punishes those who don’t comply.
The McGehee Family Clinic, P.A. was recently hit with back taxes and a penalty under Code Sec. 666A in conjunction with a deduction to the Benistar 419 plan
Dr. McGehee's clinic took a deduction for a 419 plan (the Benistar plan) back in 2005. Eventually, the McGhee Family Clinic was audited. After the audit, the doctor was told that the deduction would be disallowed and that back taxes were due. Additionally, Dr. McGehee was hit with a 20 percent accuracy-related penalty under Code Sec. 6662A. Finally, the tax court sustained the IRS's determination that McGehee was subject to the increased 30 percent penalty, because its return did not include a disclosure statement indicating its participation in the Benistar Trust. I think that in addition to the aforementioned fines, IRS will now fine him, both on a corporate and personal level, another $200,000 or more, under IRC 6707A, for not properly disclosing his participation in a listed transaction. There was a moratorium on those fines until June 2010, pending new legislation to reduce them. The fines had been 200,000 per year on the corporate level and $100,000 per year on the personal level. You got the fine even if you made no contributions for the year. All you had to do was to be in the plan. So Dr. McGehee's fine would be a total of $300,000 per year for every year that he and his corporation were in the plan. IRS also says the fine is not appealable. His fine would be in the million-dollar range and it would be in addition to the back taxes, interest, and penalties already discussed earlier in this paragraph.
Legislation just passed slightly reducing those fines, but you still have to properly file to start the Statute of Limitations running to avoid the fines. IRS is fining people who report on themselves, but make a mistake on the forms. Now that the moratorium on the fines has passed, and so has the new legislation, IRS has aggressively moved to fine unsuspecting business owners hundreds of thousands. This is usually after they get audited, and sometimes reach agreement with IRS. Then another division or department of the IRS imposes a fine under 6707A. I am receiving a lot of phone calls from business owners who this is happening to. Unfortunately, some of these people already had called me. I warned them to properly file under 6707A. Either they did not believe me - it is unbelievable - or their accountant or tax attorney filed incorrectly. Then they called again after being fined.
If you were involved with one of these abusive plans, there are steps that you can take to minimize IRS problems. With respect to filing under Section 6707A, I know the two best people in the country at filing after the fact, which is what you would be doing at this point, and still somehow avoiding the fine. It is an art that both learned through countless hours of research and numerous conversations with IRS personnel. Both have filed dozens of times for clients, after the fact, without the clients being fined. Either may well still be able to help you.
And the right accountant, one with the proper knowledge, experience, and Service contacts, can help with the other IRS problems as well. I recall a case where a CPA I knew and recommended was able to get $300,000 or so in liabilities reduced to three thousand dollars and change. Do not count on a result like this, but help is available.
It’s not worth it!
Stay away from 419 and similar plans like Section 79 plans. Be very careful with 412i plans. Avoid most captive insurance plans.
It’s getting closer to the end of the year. This is when every scammer known to man/woman comes out of the woodwork to sell some fly-by-night tax-deductible plan to clients. Sometimes they come in the form of an accountant, insurance agent-financial planner, or even an attorney. I see this in all of my expert witness cases and when I speak at conventions. I have seen this since the 1990s. I wanted to remind readers that, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Lance Wallach, National Society of Accountants Speaker of the Year and member of the
AICPA faculty of teaching professionals, is a frequent speaker on retirement plans, financial
and estate planning, and abusive tax shelters. He writes about 412(i), 419, and captive
insurance plans. He speaks at more than ten conventions annually, writes for over fifty
publications, is quoted regularly in the press and has been featured on television and radio
financial talk shows including NBC, National Pubic Radio's All Things Considered, and
others. Lance has written numerous books including Protecting Clients from Fraud,
Incompetence and Scams published by John Wiley and Sons, Bisk Education's CPA's
Guide to Life Insurance and Federal Estate and Gift Taxation, as well as AICPA best-selling
books, including Avoiding Circular 230 Malpractice Traps and Common Abusive Small
Business Hot Spots. He does expert witness testimony and has never lost a case. Contact
him at 516.938.5007, wallachinc@gmail.com or visit .taxaudit419.com or taxlibrary.
us.
The information provided herein is not intended as legal, accounting, financial or any type of advice for any specific individual or other entity. You should contact an appropriate professional for any such advice.Large IRS Fines For Participation in 419, 412i, Captive Insurance and Section 79
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