Read about taxpayers with IRS problems and learn useful tips on how to end them.
CARD SHARK PHIL LAAK OWES NEARLY $25,000 IN BACK TAXES
The professional poker player has won millions showing his cards.
Professional poker player Phil Laak has made millions traveling the professional card shark circuit.
But his next opponent will be tough to bluff: the taxman. Laak owes $24,874 in back taxes to the State of California, according to lien documents obtained by TMZ.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Laak learned to play poker when he was a child. He holds a World Poker Tour title and a World Series of Poker bracelet.
He’s also appeared on nationally aired television shows.
Before focusing on poker, Laak was a world-class backgammon player when he lived in New York City. He now lives in Los Angeles.
Source: The American Society of Tax Problem Solvers ASTPS.org
INDIANA MAN GETS FIVE YEARS FOR TAX EVASION
An Indiana man was sentenced to five years, the maximum sentence, after admitting that he had engaged in tax evasion costing taxpayers more than $400,000.
According to court records, Gregory P. Stodghill, 46, of Vincennes, Ind., engaged in a series of complicated financial schemes that funneled outside investor funds through a number of off-shore shell companies.
As a result of these and other financial transactions, Stodghill generated over $1 million in personal income, though he did not pay income taxes for this income in 2006 or 2008.
Stodghill later filed a number of frivolous documents with the IRS claiming he had no tax liability.
Source: The American Society of Tax Problem Solvers ASTPS.org
WOMAN IN OHIO GETS PRISON FOR TAX FILINGS
An Ohio woman was sentenced to one day in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release, for filing false income tax returns.
Kelly Prigmore, 43, of Akron, Ohio, was convicted after a two-day trial of filing false income tax returns for 2006 and 2007, on which she failed to report more than $200,000 of income she earned as a self-employed home health care provider.
Evidence at trial revealed that Prigmore caused the tax returns to list her occupation as a homemaker and to report that she and her husband were a low-income family entitled to an Earned Income Credit and resulting tax refund each year.
For 2006, she reported income of $8,600 and omitted approximately $96,686. For 2007, she reported total income of $8,990 and omitted approximately $112,795, according to court records.
Source: The American Society of Tax Problem Solvers ASTPS.org
COLO. BUSINESSMAN DID NOT PAY EMPLOYEE TAXES
The owner of a Denver transportation company that was paid more than $35 million did not pay employee tax withholdings to IRS.
A Colorado man pleaded guilty to failure to pay employment taxes withheld from his employees’ paychecks and one count of making a false claim against the United States.
Lucilious J. Ward, 63, of Denver, Colo., owned and operated Global Access, which provided public and private transportation services. Its largest client has been the Regional Transportation District, which contracted with Global Access to provide a portion of RTD’s Access-a-Ride bus services. RTD has paid Global Access more than $35 million from 2003 through 2012.
From January 2005 through the second quarter of 2011, Ward withheld employment taxes from employee paychecks. Ward knowingly and willfully failed to pay to the IRS the employment taxes that Ward had withheld from their paychecks.
Additionally, in 2010, Ward filed with the IRS an amended personal tax return for the tax year 2007 which falsely claimed that $76,479.44 of federal income tax withholdings had been withheld from his paychecks by Global Access and paid to the IRS. At the time Ward filed this form, he knew that he and Global Access had not paid to the IRS the $76,479.44. Ward intentionally filed this false return so that he would be assessed a refund of $76,479 to which he was not legitimately entitled.
He faces up to five years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each count.
Source: The American Society of Tax Problem Solvers ASTPS.org
ALA. MAN GUILTY OF FILING FALSE RETURNS
He knew that he and the other taxpayers were not entitled to the $11 million in refunds he claimed.
A Birmingham, Ala., man was sentenced to nearly three years in prison and was ordered to repay the government $1.3 million for his scheme to collect millions of dollars from the Internal Revenue Service on false tax returns.
Douglas Ervin Dent, 67, must serve three years of supervised release after completing his prison sentence. He pleaded guilty to the charges.
Dent was convicted of filing 20 false income tax returns in his own name and on behalf of others between April 2008 and October 2009. Dent knew that he and the other taxpayers were not entitled to the $11 million in refunds he claimed, according to court records. Each false tax return claimed that money was earned by the taxpayer and withheld by various financial institutions on behalf of the taxpayer during the tax year, and that the taxpayer was entitled to a refund of those withholdings from the IRS. In truth, no such earnings and withholdings had occurred.
Source: The American Society of Tax Problem Solvers ASTPS.org
SELLING SCOOTERS GETS MAN IN TAX TROUBLE
A Kansas man who operated a business selling scooters pleaded guilty to tax evasion.
Dinh Nguyen, 31, of Wichita, Kan., owned BN Scooters.
In his plea agreement, he admitted that he owed substantial income tax in addition to the tax liability he reported on his 2006 income tax return.
He knew he was making a false statement when he reported he did not owe any income tax.
He faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000 at his sentencing.
Source: The American Society of Tax Problem Solvers ASTPS.org
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