Home » Posts tagged 'Investing' (Page 2)

Tag Archives: Investing

Tax Fraud Unveiled: The Case of Salvador Gonzalez and the $28 Million Scam

February 21, 2025 12:06 am

A Riverside County man has been sentenced to 72 months in federal prison for preparing and filing false tax returns for his clients, resulting in a tax loss to the IRS of at least $28 million, as announced by the Justice Department today. Salvador Gonzalez, residing in Corona, was sentenced on Monday by United States District Judge Jesus G. Bernal, who also mandated restitution payments totaling $403,908.

Gonzalez entered a guilty plea on June 17 to three counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns. Beginning in 2013, Gonzalez operated Grace’s Lighthouse Resource Center, Inc., a tax return-preparation business based in Corona. Throughout this period, Gonzalez consistently advised his clients to create fictitious corporations and to title their homes, vehicles, and other assets under the names of these corporations. He then referred these clients to an associate responsible for preparing the tax returns of these sham corporations. The associate would provide the clients with a blank spreadsheet, requesting that they input their business expenses.

Under Gonzalez’s instructions, clients included personal expenses such as mortgage payments, car payments, and utility bills in the spreadsheet provided to the associate. Consequently, the associate used this information to prepare business tax returns that inevitably displayed a loss. These fabricated losses were incorporated into the clients’ individual income tax returns, fraudulently reducing their taxable income.

Gonzalez further reduced his clients’ tax liabilities by fabricating deductions on their personal returns, including unreimbursed employee expenses, charitable contributions, and medical and dental expenses. As a result of these fraudulent practices, his clients paid less in taxes than they rightfully owed.

Before 2019, Gonzalez typically charged clients a flat fee of $500 per tax return. In 2019, he adjusted his fee structure to charge clients 1% of their gross income for his services. According to court documents, Gonzalez’s actions resulted in a tax loss to the IRS amounting to at least $28 million.

Consistent with the plea agreement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office – Tax Section filed a civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against Gonzalez. The complaint seeks to permanently prohibit Gonzalez from preparing, assisting in, directing, or supervising the preparation or filing of federal tax returns, amended tax returns, or other related documents or forms for others. The civil complaint alleges that over several years, Gonzalez prepared tax returns that understated the federal income-tax liability of his customers through a scheme that harmed the United States, the IRS, his customers, and the public.

Finally a Tax Law Change That Will Make Our Lives Easier. Well, unless you are a stock broker or mutual fund company that is. 1099-B Reporting Expanded

October 12, 2010 3:02 pm / Leave a comment

Mutual fund

Mutual Fund

Stacie says: Good news for taxpayers who receive Forms 1099-B Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions.  Starting in 2011, these forms will include the cost or other basis information of stock and mutual fund shares sold or exchanged during the year.  I can’t tell you how happy this makes me.  Countless hours are spent each year by preparers and taxpayers alike trying to find the basis information on stock sales.  I have to say that this law change falls within one of my more favored.

WASHINGTON —  The Internal Revenue Service today issued final regulations under a law change that will require reporting of basis and other information by stock brokers and mutual fund companies for most stock purchased in 2011 and all stock purchased in 2012 and later years.  The reporting will be to investors and the IRS. This additional reporting will be optional for stock purchased prior to these dates.

“This important reporting change means investors will now receive the information they need to more easily and accurately report their gains and losses,” said IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman. “We will continue to work closely with stakeholder groups to ensure a smooth implementation of the new requirement, which reduces the recordkeeping and paperwork burden for millions of taxpayers.”

These regulations, posted today in the Federal Register, implement a provision in the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008.  Among other things, the regulations describe who is subject to this reporting requirement, which transactions are reportable and what information needs to be reported. Besides providing numerous examples, they also adopt a number of comments and suggestions received since the proposed regulations were issued last December.

Form 1099-B, Proceeds from Broker and Barter Exchange Transactions, long used to report sales prices, will be expanded in 2011 to include the cost or other basis of stock and mutual fund shares sold or exchanged during the year. Stock brokers and mutual fund companies will use this form to make these expanded year-end reports.   The expanded form will also be used to report whether gain or loss realized on these transactions is long-term (held more than one year) or short-term (held one year or less), a key factor affecting the tax treatment of gain or loss. The expanded form, to be first used for calendar-year 2011 sales, must be filed with the IRS and furnished to investors in early 2012.

The IRS today also announced penalty relief for brokers and custodians for reporting certain transfers of stock in 2011.

The relief is described in Notice 2010-67, which was posted today on IRS.gov.

Related Articles

Post navigation

Newer posts →