Business Law

In R v. Potisk (1973) The Police charged Potisk with larceny after he was given $2895.17 instead of $1233.23 by a bank teller when exchanging the USD currency and was found not guilty by the supreme court after the judge ruled that it is was not larceny and he was given the money although he was being dishonest. The law is effective in determining justice in this case because he didn't take the money without consent, he was being dishonest and was found not guilty because the judge and evidence proved he committed no econmoic offence. When it comes to white-collar crimes tax evasion is the most common of the three offences (Insider trading, tax evasion and computer crimes). These three offences have different sentences depending on the severeity of the crime but have a minimum of 8 years

Corporate Fraud -consists of activities undertaken by an individual or company that are done in a dishonest or illegal manner, and are designed to give an advantage to the perpetrating individual or company (Kim, 2015)

Before going on with the details of this process, it is important that you have a clear understanding of illegal or unacceptable practices to be avoided in your search to lower taxes. If you are not careful, you could already be charged with tax evasion without you knowing it.

It’s pretty much common knowledge to us all you have to pay taxes! The general rule in the American legal system is that ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law or mistake of law is no defense. I suppose the question here should be, is there an exception to the rule. Is a mistake of the law no matter how stupid a defense to criminal liability?

In the case of Abby Lee Miller, an article in Forbes Magazine was written about her for hiding around $755,492.85 her income. Abby Lee Miller is a famous dance studio owner from Pittsburg that is featured on the TLC show ‘Dance Moms’. Most recently, on June 27 2016, Ms. Miller was convicted guilty of bankruptcy fraud, concealment of bankruptcy assets, and false bankruptcy declaration. She was caught hiding income from appearing on ‘Dance Moms’ and making guest appearances on similar shows. She also was hiding her income from selling merchandise and from holding dance master classes. Miller was hiding this by having payments made payable to other parties that included her mother, and fake companies. By hiding her income, the dance studio owner was not paying the proper amount in income tax. To add to this charge, in June, Abby Lee Miller transported more the $10,000 into the United States from Australia without filling out the proper paperwork for the Federal Government

On the other hand, tax evasion by definition is the use of “illegal means to avoid paying taxes and involves and individual or corporation misrepresenting their income to the Internal Revenue Service” and is considered fraud. An

Also many people can find ways around taxes, both legal and illegal, so they don't pay as much as they should be.

“Have you ever had a little brother or sister go through all of your belongings and find money and end up stealing it, knowing they were doing wrong. Just because this happened to you when you were younger does not mean that it can not happen to you when you are an adult. A Boston-area psychiatrist, for example, forfeited $1.3 million and was sentenced to several years in federal prison following his late-1990s conviction on 136 counts of mail fraud, money laundering and witness intimidation related to his fraudulent billing of several health insurers for psychiatric therapy sessions that never took place-using the names and insurance information of many people whom he actually had never met, let alone treated. (He also went so far as to write fictitious longhand session notes to ensure phony backup for his phony claims.)”(Webinar) Fraud is something that can happen on any level where a crime can be committed by a person, knowing they are doing it and still getting away with it or by accident knowing that their actions were innocuous, either way fraud is fraud and as sad as it is to say, it happens every day by millions of people, not just the IRS. “Few attempts have been made to actually see how

Fraud is any and all means a person uses to gain an unfair advantage over another person.

Since the passage of the first income tax law, tax accountants, lawyers, and business persons have concerned themselves with choosing among the various forms a transaction may take. Tax planning is the process of arranging an individual’s transactions in such a manner as to maximize the individual’s after-tax income. This process is called tax avoidance, and it is a legal and legitimate pursuit.

The documentary covers the investigation of major using tax haven secrets of ultra-rich exposed to keep from paying the taxes. Many of the stories in the documentary focus on politicians, multinationals, celebrities, and high-net-worth individuals using offshore trusts, foundations, and shell companies accounts to keep from paying taxes in the United States.

In the case of Abby Lee Miller, an article in Forbes Magazine was written about her for hiding around $755,492.85 her income. Abby Lee Miller is a famous dance studio owner from Pittsburg that is featured on the TLC show ‘Dance Moms’. Most recently, on June 27 2016, Ms. Miller was convicted guilty for bankruptcy fraud, concealment of bankruptcy assets, and false bankruptcy declaration. She was caught hiding income from appearing on ‘Dance Moms’ and making guest appearances on similar shows. She also was hiding her income from selling merchandise and from holding dance master classes. Miller was hiding this by having payments be payable to other parties that included her mother, and fake companies. By hiding her income, the dance studio owner was not paying the proper amount in income tax. To add to this charge, in June, Abby Lee Miller transported more the $10,000 into the United States from Australia without filling out the proper paper work for the Federal Government (Erb, 2016).

Another example came into light few months ago when Ladbrokes lost a £54 million tax avoidance case versus HMRC at first-tier tribunal. The FTT found Ladbrokes guilty of using tax avoidance scheme which involved using two of its companies, Ladrboke International and Travel Document Service, to artificially manufacture the fall in the value of the shares in one and create a loss in the other, whereas the group did not suffer any economic loss during the process. Ladbrokes admitted the scheme and intentions of avoiding tax but argued that their actions were not out of the legal boundaries (Financial Director, 2015).

The investigative long-running television documentary Panorama drawing on the ‘current affairs’ has gained considerable attention and credibility from viewers for a long time. As one episode of this factual television programme, ‘The Bank of Tax Cheats’ inherits the impartiality of this popular TV series and conducts an investigation around the issue of tax evasion, trying to find out how the Britain’s biggest bank HSBC has assisted its wealthiest clients to avoid paying tax. This essay will produce a detailed analysis of this particular case, focusing on how it structures and presents the real event in order to pursue the journalistic objectives and truthfulness.

Their records indicate that nearly 20 million potentially fraudulent refund claims, involving more than $60 billion, have been detected and stopped over the past four years. Having so many cases of fraud each year has made tax fraud the third largest theft of federal funds after Medicare/Medicaid and unemployment-insurance fraud. (Speer, 2015) Each year from January until April, thieves and scammers use different ways to obtain bogus tax refunds. Since the end of the 2012 tax filing season, the IRS has nearly doubled the amount of investigators assigned to work identity tax fraud and prosecute thieves, but even with investigators more than $5 billion fraudulent refunds were paid out in 2013 and is that amount is forecasted to grow, potentially reaching tens of billions of