A former senior manager and a former partner of KPMG who left the Big Four firm more than a decade ago to form their own business were sentenced and fined millions of dollars earlier this month after being convicted in December of selling illegal tax shelters that helped their clients avoid paying millions.In Manhattan Federal Court, former senior manager John Larson was sentenced to a decade in prison and fined $6 million. Former KPMG tax partner Robert Pfaff was sentenced to eight years and ordered to pay $3 million.

The IRS has issued guidance to companies making distributions from an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) to participants who have been terminated from the plan.Some ESOP companies allow, or even require, terminated plan participants who receive distributions of company stock to sell that stock back to the company.

For all you procrastinators out there who look upon April 15th with a dread similar to what George Bailey felt when the IRS showed up in Bedford Falls, you are not alone.TurboTax has released its annual list of the top 10 procrastinating cities and after all the last minute electronic tax filings have been tallied, Chicago leads the country in procrastinators. But the reach of the procrastinator stretches across the country with New York City, Houston, Austin, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Las Vegas, San Antonio, and Los Angeles rounding out the top 10.

Alexis Stewart, the daughter of world-famous Martha Stewart, is suing her accountant over a tax return that she said contained mistakes costing her hundreds of thousands of dollars.A radio and TV host, Stewart, 43, filed a lawsuit earlier this month contending that CPA Michael Mirras, who she hired to do her 2002 tax return, miscalculated the amount she owed the IRS, according to the Washington Post.

By midday Friday it looked like Helio Castroneves would be biting his nails through the weekend, waiting for the jury to continue deliberating this week. But by the end of the day Friday... he walked out of the courthouse, free. After six weeks of trial and another six days of deliberation, the jury deadlocked on the key charge of conspiracy. U.S. District Court Judge Donald Graham declared a mistrial on the conspiracy charge and told Castroneves he was free to go. On his way out people everywhere, including court officials, congratulated him. "Go get 'em, Helio," said a U.S.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued its 2009 "dirty dozen" list of tax scams, including schemes involving phishing, hiding income offshore and false claims for refunds."Taxpayers should be wary of scams to avoid paying taxes that seem too good to be true, especially during these challenging economic times," IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said. "There is no secret trick that can eliminate a person's tax obligations.

It's tax time, which means almost 21 million self-employed people are preparing to fill out their tax returns, including Schedule C: Profit or Loss from Business. Should be pretty easy - just enter how much money came in and went out of your business last year. Right?

Desperate times can sometimes result in desperate measures. During an economic downturn, the pressure to generate revenue can be great. Economic espionage can result when employees are forced to come up with the next big idea or they have financial difficulties. Economic espionage is defined as the theft or misappropriation of trade secrets.

Updated April 3, 2009 - Last July, Wesley Snipes was acquitted of the worst of the tax evasion charges against him, but was still sentenced to 36 months in prison and ordered to pay a $5 million fine. Snipes remains free on bail while he appeals the decision, but Senior U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges limited Snipes's foreign travel to London and Bangkok while the actor completed work on movies. In November, Snipes violated that restriction by attending a party for a resort opening in Dubai.