Do Amended Returns Submitted under OVDP 2009 and OVDI 2011 Really Have to be Complete and Accurate? (7/7/11)

The answer, as you might suspect, is yes.

FAQ 7 says (in part):

• Provide complete and accurate amended federal income tax returns (for individuals, Form 1040X, or original Form 1040 if delinquent) for all tax years covered by the voluntary disclosure, with applicable schedules detailing the amount and type of previously unreported income from the account or entity (e.g., Schedule B for interest and dividends, Schedule D for capital gains and losses, Schedule E for income from partnerships, S corporations, estates or trusts).

Read more »

Willfulness -- Amended Returns and Bank Accounts That Are Not Hidden -- and Materiality

In United States v. Shellef, 2010 732 F.Supp.2d 42 (ED NY 2010), decided 8/5/10, the Court denied Shellef's motion for a motions for acquittal and retrial. This trial was actually his second, the first having been reversed on appeal because of improper joinder issues. United States v. Shellef, 507 F.3d 82 (2d Cir. 2007). After convictions on various counts on the second trial, Shellef moved for acquittal and retrial. The key counts of conviction were for the defraud / Klein conspiracy with respect to excise taxes on certain chemicals, tax perjury (7206(1)) for the 1999 income tax return for a Shellef company, wire fraud with respect to the chemical trading relating to payment of excise taxes, and money laundering. I discuss here only the tax perjury count.

Shellef asserted that the Government had not proved willfulness sufficient that a reasonable jury could have found guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The hurdle he had to clear -- insurmountable it turns out -- was that the evidence showed that he had not reported "$782,781 in income, which represented the proceeds of his domestic sales of" the chemical subject to the excise tax. The court concluded that
Read more »