Showing posts with label scams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scams. Show all posts

The dangers of being “listed” | Offices of Lance Wallach

The dangers of being “listed” | Offices of Lance Wallach

captive insurance lance wallach - Google Search

captive insurance lance wallach - Google Search

Captive Insurance - Buyer Beware! Leading Experts

Captive Insurance - Buyer Beware! Leading Experts

What is a Section 79 plan

What is a Section 79 plan

Understanding Section 79 Plans With Permanent Life Insurance | Section 79 Plans

Understanding Section 79 Plans With Permanent Life Insurance | Section 79 Plans

419 Plan, 412i Plan, Welfare benefit plan assistance, audits & Abusive tax shelters

419 Plan, 412i Plan, Welfare benefit plan assistance, audits & Abusive tax shelters

Reportable Transactions & 419 Plans Litigation: CJA and associates 419 412i section 79 scam audits...

Reportable Transactions & 419 Plans Litigation: CJA and associates 419 412i section 79 scam audits...: CJA and associates 419 412i section 79 scam audits lawsuits

Captive Insurance & 419 Plans Litigation: March 2014

Captive Insurance & 419 Plans Litigation: March 2014














Monday, March 25, 2013


Life Insurance Policy Gone Wrong


Protecting Clients From Fraud, Incompetence, and Scams
By: Lance Wallach
Published by John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Excerpts have been taken from this book about:

Bruce Hink, who has given me permission to utilize his name and circumstances, is a perfect example of what the IRS is doing to unsuspecting business owners.  What follows is a story about Bruce Hink and how the IRS fined him $200,000 a year for being in what they called a “listed transaction”.  In addition, I believe that the accountant who signed the tax return and the insurance agent who sold the retirement plan will each be fined $200,000 as material advisors.  We have received a large number of calls for help from accountants, business owners, and insurance agents in similar situations.  Don’t think this will happen to you.  It is happening to a lot of accountants and business owners, because most of these so-called listed, abusive plans, or plans substantially similar to the so-called listed, are currently being sold by most insurance agents. 

Bruce was a small business owner facing $400,000 in IRS penalties for 2004 and 2005 for his 412(i) plan (IRC6707A).  Here is how the story developed.

In 2002 an insurance agent representing a 100-year-old well-established insurance company suggested he start a pension plan.  Bruce was given a portfolio of information from the insurance company, which was given to the company’s outside CPA to review and to offer an opinion.  The CPA gave the plan the green light and the plan was started for tax year 2002.

Contributions were made in 2003.  Then the administrator came out with amendments to the plan, based on new IRS guidelines, in October 2004.

The business owner’s agent disappeared in May 2005 before implementing the new guidelines from the administrator with the insurance company.  The business owner was left with a refund check from the insurance company, a deduction claim on his 2004 tax return that had not been applied, and without an agent.

I took six months of making calls to the insurance company to get a new insurance agent assigned.  By then, the IRS had started an examination of the pension plan.  Bruce asked for advice from the CPA and the local attorney (who had no previous experience in such cases), which made matters worse, with a “big name” law firm being recommended and more than $30,000 in additional legal fees being billed in three months.

To make a long story short, the audit stretched on for more than two years to examine a two-year old pension with four participants and $178,000 in contributions.

During the audit, no funds went to the insurance company.  The company was awaiting IRS approval and restructuring the plan as a traditional defined benefit plan, which the administrator had suggested and which the IRS had indicated would be acceptable.  The $90,000 2005 contribution was put into the company’s retirement bank account along with the 2004 contribution.

In March 2008, the business owner received an apology from the IRS agent who headed the examination.  Even this sympathetic IRS agent thinks there is a problem with the IRS enforcement of these Draconian penalties.  Below is one of her emails to the business owner who was fined $400,000.

From:  XXXXXXXX XXXXX <XXXXXXXX.XXXXX@irs.gov>

Date: Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 7:12 AM

Subject: RE: Urgent
To: Bruce Hink  <brucehink@XXXXXXX.com>

Thanks Bruce – yes – please just overnight then to the Grand Rapids address.  Once again, I’m sorry about this.  Basically, our Counsel told us that we needed language specific to the IRC 6707A penalty in order for that statute to be extended.  I will ask the Reviewer to hold off an extra day.
            I’m also very sorry that this is getting you down.  Deeply sorry.  It’s very difficult for me as well – before I started working on this project (412(i)) I was doing audits of 401(k) and profit sharing plans.  If there was an error on the plan, the employer would just fix it and the audit was over.  There wasn’t anything controversial about it – and I felt like I was helping people – employers and plan participants.  I really liked my job.  In two years time, that has completely changed.  I know it’s not very “professional” to make such confessions – so forgive me.  But I guess I just wanted you to know that I really sympathize with your situation – and have been doing whatever I can to help.  I know that having this hanging over your head can’t be fun – but as this project goes forward – I think that the IRS is going to have to soften their position somewhat – so these delays may be to your benefit.
            Also, I’m not really supposed to be sending emails to you – but when I went through the file I couldn’t find a good phone number for you.  Could you just send me a note or an email with a current phone number?
            Looking to receive the signed 872s on Thursday.  If you have any questions at any time – please call me at XXX-XXX-XXXX. I’m usually in the office in the mornings.

The IRS subsequently denied any appeal and ruled in October 2008 that the $400,000 penalty would stand.


Could You or One of Your Clients Be Next?

Some of the areas SB/SE will be examining include pass-though entities, high-income filers, and abusive transactions.  S corporations are likely to receive particular scrutiny.  Further review would not be limited to S corporations, but would extend to pass-through entities like partnerships, which can expect to receive a “significant amount of attention” because SB/SE has found an area of abuse and would like to curb what is called a growing trend of abusive high-income filers, typically classified as those with an adjusted gross income of more than $200,000.

The IRS has been cracking down on what it considers to be abusive tax shelters.  Many of them are being marketed to small business owners by insurance professionals, financial planners, and even accountants and attorneys.  I speak at numerous conventions, for both business owners and accountants.  And after I speak, I am always approached by many people who have questions about tax reduction plans that they have heard about.

I have been an expert witness in many of these 419 and 412(i) lawsuits and I have not lost one of them.  If you sold one or more of these plans, get someone who really knows what they are doing to help you immediately.  Many advisors will take your money and claim to be able to help you.  Make sure they have experience helping accountants who signed the tax returns.  IRS calls them material advisors and fines them $200,000 if they are incorporated or $100,000 if they are not.  Do not let them learn on the job, with your career and money at stake.


Lance Wallach, a member of the AICPA faculty of teaching professionals and an AICPA course developer, is a frequent and popular speaker on retirement plans, financial and estate planning, reducing health insurance costs, and tax-oriented strategies at accounting and financial planning conventions. He has authored numerous books including The Team Approach to Tax, Financial and Estate Planning, Avoiding Circular 230 Malpractice Traps and Common Abusive Small Business Hot Spots, and Sid Kess’ Alternatives to Commonly Misused Tax Strategies: Ensuring Your Client’s Future, all published by the AICPA, and Wealth Preservation Planning by the National Society of Accountants. His newest books CPAs’ Guide to Life Insurance and CPAs’ Guide to Federal and Estate Gift Taxation by Bisk CPEasy, and Protecting Clients from Fraud, Incompetence, and Scams, published by John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Mr. Wallach, CLU, CHFC, is a leading speaker on accounting and taxation topics and the author of numerous AICPA CPA exam publications.  In addition to developing CPE courses, he is also a member of the AICPA faculty of teaching professionals, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Bloomberg Financial News, NBC, National Pubic Radio’s All Things Considered, and other radio talk shows.  Mr. Wallach is listed in Who’s Who in Finance and Business.
















412i-419 Plans: Lance Wallach Life Insurance: complex scams involv...

412i-419 Plans: Lance Wallach Life Insurance: complex scams involv...: Lance Wallach Life Insurance: complex scams involving life insurance policies : There are a lot of complex scams involving life insurance po...



















Friday, March 28, 2014


412i-419 Plans: Raymond Ankner -Expected to be the biggest life in...

412i-419 Plans: Raymond Ankner -Expected to be the biggest life in...: Raymond Ankner -Expected to be the biggest life insurance failure in Illinois : Raymond Ankner -Expected to be the biggest life in... : Raym...




 
 
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 412i 419 sect 79 lawsuits audits www.lancewallach.com for help (plainview)

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Lance Wallach helps with 419 problems. 412i 419 abusive tax shelters IRS audits, lawsuits, Lance Wallach will help www.vebaplan.com
419, 412i, IRS audits, Lance Wallach, Google him helps, The following had something to do with this.
Dennis Cunning Steve Toth Randall Smith Paul Kaplan Herb Green Casey Hermansen
Larry Bell Scott Ridge Judy Carsrud Jeffrey Glasberg Herb McDowel
Greg Roper Joseph Donnelly
Norm Bevan Michael Sonnenberg
Dan Carpenter Anthony Fakouri
Steve Burgess
Robin Weingast
IRS audits 419 412i captive insurance and section 79 plans. Lance Wallach will help you.

IRS audits section 79 419 412i plans. www.lancewallach.com for help







Did you Participate in a 419 or 412i Benefit Plan?: Help with Common IRS Problems: Abusive Tax Shelter...

Did you Participate in a 419 or 412i Benefit Plan?: Help with Common IRS Problems: Abusive Tax Shelter...: Help with Common IRS Problems: Abusive Tax Shelters: Class Action Filed against C... : Abusive Tax Shelters: Class Action Filed against CJA ...









Find Legal Articles


Expert Witnesses


Welfare Benefit Plans Funded with Permanent Life Insurance Are Abusive Tax Scams



Find a Law Firm:   

Similarly, the IRS position on single employer welfare benefit plans invested in permanent life insurance where the employer deducts more than the term cost of insurance is that those plans are also abusive tax scams.

• Millennium Plan
• Insured Security Plan
• Corporate Benefit Services Plan
• Sea Nine Associates VEBA
• Niche National Benefit Plans
• Professional Benefit Trust (PBT)
• Koresko STEP Plan
• Bisys Plan
• Xelan Plan
• Sterling Plan

Question: What is the IRS position on these plans?

Answer: The IRS position appears to be that all multiple employer welfare benefit plans funded with permanent life insurance are abusive tax scams. Their history is to open promoter audits on every such plan and eventually to obtain the client lists from the promoters and then audit their clients. The IRS position on single employer welfare benefit plans that are spin-offs of the multiple employer plans appears to be the same.

Question: Has the IRS approved any multiple or single employer welfare benefit plan invested in permanent life insurance?

Answer: Though an IRS private letter ruling is not immediately public, it is my understanding that the IRS has never “approved” of any multiple or single employer welfare benefit plan where permanent life insurance was used as a funding vehicle and the participating employer took a deduction for anything other than the current term insurance cost.

Question: Are the IRS audits coordinated?

Answer: Yes. The IRS audits are both targeted and coordinated. They are targeted meaning that the IRS obtains a list of the participating employers in a plan promotion and audits the participating employers (and owners) for the purpose of challenging the deductions taken with respect to the plan. The audits are coordinated meaning that there is an IRS Issue Management Team for each promotion that has responsibility for both managing the promoter audit(s) and also developing the coordinated position to be followed by the Examination Agents. Their intention is that all taxpayers under audit will receive the similar treatment in Exam. There are also IRS Offices that specialize in 419 audits. For example, IRS offices in upstate New York and in El Monte California will manage many audits of specific promotions.

Question: What is the general IRS position on these plans?

Answer: Though there can be some differences among plans, the basic IRS position is that the plans are not welfare benefit plans, but really plans of deferred compensation. As such, the contributions remain deductible at the business level but are included in the owner’s 1040 income for every open year and the value of the insurance policy with respect to contributions in closed years is included in the owner’s income either in the first open year or the year of termination or transfer. The IRS will normally apply 20% penalties on the tax applied and 30% with respect to non-reporting cases (see discussion below).

The above sales pitch was not written by Lance Wallach. Lance gets hundreds of phone calls yearly about 419 and other abusive tax shelters. As an expert witness Lance Wallach’s side has never lost a case. The above sales pitch fails to mention that unless the business owner has properly filed under 6707a they will probably receive an additional large IRS fine.


The information provided herein is not intended as legal, accounting, financial or any type of advice for any specific individual or other entity. You should contact an appropriate professional for any such advice.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lance Wallach
Lance Wallach, National Society of Accountants Speaker of the Year and member of the AICPA faculty of teaching professionals, is a frequent speaker on retirement plans, abusive tax shelters, financial, international tax, and estate planning. He writes about 412(i), 419, Section79, FBAR, and captive insurance plans. He does expert witness testimony and has never lost a case.

Copyright Lance Wallach, CLU, CHFC
More information about 

Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, it is not intended to provide legal advice as individual situations will differ and should be discussed with an expert and/or lawyer. For specific technical or legal advice on the information provided and related topics, please contact the author.



Help with Common IRS Problems: Abusive Tax Shelters: Class Action Filed against C...

Help with Common IRS Problems: Abusive Tax Shelters: Class Action Filed against C...: Abusive Tax Shelters: Class Action Filed against CJA and Associates and ... : Hartford, CT: A consumer fraud class action lawsuit has been...





















Find Legal Articles


Expert Witnesses


Welfare Benefit Plans Funded with Permanent Life Insurance Are Abusive Tax Scams



Find a Law Firm:   

Similarly, the IRS position on single employer welfare benefit plans invested in permanent life insurance where the employer deducts more than the term cost of insurance is that those plans are also abusive tax scams.

• Millennium Plan
• Insured Security Plan
• Corporate Benefit Services Plan
• Sea Nine Associates VEBA
• Niche National Benefit Plans
• Professional Benefit Trust (PBT)
• Koresko STEP Plan
• Bisys Plan
• Xelan Plan
• Sterling Plan

Question: What is the IRS position on these plans?

Answer: The IRS position appears to be that all multiple employer welfare benefit plans funded with permanent life insurance are abusive tax scams. Their history is to open promoter audits on every such plan and eventually to obtain the client lists from the promoters and then audit their clients. The IRS position on single employer welfare benefit plans that are spin-offs of the multiple employer plans appears to be the same.

Question: Has the IRS approved any multiple or single employer welfare benefit plan invested in permanent life insurance?

Answer: Though an IRS private letter ruling is not immediately public, it is my understanding that the IRS has never “approved” of any multiple or single employer welfare benefit plan where permanent life insurance was used as a funding vehicle and the participating employer took a deduction for anything other than the current term insurance cost.

Question: Are the IRS audits coordinated?

Answer: Yes. The IRS audits are both targeted and coordinated. They are targeted meaning that the IRS obtains a list of the participating employers in a plan promotion and audits the participating employers (and owners) for the purpose of challenging the deductions taken with respect to the plan. The audits are coordinated meaning that there is an IRS Issue Management Team for each promotion that has responsibility for both managing the promoter audit(s) and also developing the coordinated position to be followed by the Examination Agents. Their intention is that all taxpayers under audit will receive the similar treatment in Exam. There are also IRS Offices that specialize in 419 audits. For example, IRS offices in upstate New York and in El Monte California will manage many audits of specific promotions.

Question: What is the general IRS position on these plans?

Answer: Though there can be some differences among plans, the basic IRS position is that the plans are not welfare benefit plans, but really plans of deferred compensation. As such, the contributions remain deductible at the business level but are included in the owner’s 1040 income for every open year and the value of the insurance policy with respect to contributions in closed years is included in the owner’s income either in the first open year or the year of termination or transfer. The IRS will normally apply 20% penalties on the tax applied and 30% with respect to non-reporting cases (see discussion below).

The above sales pitch was not written by Lance Wallach. Lance gets hundreds of phone calls yearly about 419 and other abusive tax shelters. As an expert witness Lance Wallach’s side has never lost a case. The above sales pitch fails to mention that unless the business owner has properly filed under 6707a they will probably receive an additional large IRS fine.


The information provided herein is not intended as legal, accounting, financial or any type of advice for any specific individual or other entity. You should contact an appropriate professional for any such advice.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Lance Wallach
Lance Wallach, National Society of Accountants Speaker of the Year and member of the AICPA faculty of teaching professionals, is a frequent speaker on retirement plans, abusive tax shelters, financial, international tax, and estate planning. He writes about 412(i), 419, Section79, FBAR, and captive insurance plans. He does expert witness testimony and has never lost a case.

Copyright Lance Wallach, CLU, CHFC
More information about 

Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, it is not intended to provide legal advice as individual situations will differ and should be discussed with an expert and/or lawyer. For specific technical or legal advice on the information provided and related topics, please contact the author.