{"id":4057,"date":"2021-09-25T18:17:47","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T18:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/?p=4057"},"modified":"2021-09-25T18:17:49","modified_gmt":"2021-09-25T18:17:49","slug":"an-ill-advised-irs-streamlined-filing-compliance-procedure-filing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/planning-for-tax-minimization\/an-ill-advised-irs-streamlined-filing-compliance-procedure-filing\/","title":{"rendered":"An Ill-advised IRS Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedure Filing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday the US Department of Justice announced\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0the indictment of Mark Anthony Gyetvay, who filed to enter IRS \u201cStreamlined Filing Compliance Procedures in which he attested that his prior failure to file FBARs and tax returns was non-willful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, his Streamlined filing was for foreign accounts valued at over $93 million. Not surprisingly the large account filing was further scrutinized and investigated. Even worse, his filings with the IRS will be now used against him in a criminal prosecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Gyetvay attempted\nStreamlined Filing Compliance Procedure (SCFP) filing was very ill-advised. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nIRS\u2019 SFCP is for taxpayers who non-willfully failed to disclose foreign assets.\nUnder the SFCP, non-willful conduct is specifically defined as \u201cconduct that is\ndue to negligence, inadvertence, or mistake or conduct that is the result of a\ngood faith misunderstanding of the requirements of the law\u201d.  The most important first step in analyzing\nwhether a taxpayer is eligible to participate in the streamlined procedures is\nto ascertain whether the taxpayer\u2019s compliance failure, including the failure\nto file an FBAR, was actually non-willful. The IRS has defined \u201cnonwillful\nconduct\u201d as \u201cconduct that is due to negligence, inadvertence, or mistake or\nconduct that is the result of a good faith misunderstanding of the requirements\nof the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is extremely important that a taxpayer\u2019s eligibility is carefully analyzed because once the SFCP is elected and the taxpayer claims the violations were non-willful. There are possible risk factors that need to be considered and analyzed such as the evidence of willfulness including the knowledge of laws and violations. The taxpayer needs to be prepared to defend filing an SFCP and be able to demonstrate their non-willfulness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our\nfirm\u2019s experience, we have seen great interest and participation by taxpayers\nin the SFCP program. We have successfully filed hundreds of streamlined\nsubmissions for satisfied clients over the years. Taxpayers who have failed to\ncomply with their US tax filing and information reporting obligations should be\naware of and seek appropriate legal advice regarding which disclosure program\nto pursue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Gyetvay\u2019s\nSFCP filing was too large and complex and had willful factors. He should not\nhave filed in the Streamline program. The SFCP will be used against him and he may\ngo to jail as a result. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nindictment announcement is pasted below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A federal grand jury in\nFort Myers, Florida, returned an indictment on Sept. 22 charging a Florida\nbusinessman with defrauding the United States by not disclosing his substantial\noffshore assets, failing to report substantial income on his tax returns,\nfailing to pay millions of dollars of taxes and submitting a false offshore\ncompliance filing with the IRS in an attempt to avoid substantial penalties and\ncriminal prosecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the indictment, from\n2005 to 2016, Mark Anthony Gyetvay allegedly engaged in a scheme to defraud the\nUnited States by concealing his ownership and control over substantial offshore\nassets and by failing to file and pay taxes on millions of dollars of income.\nAfter working as a certified public accountant (CPA) in the United States and\nRussia, Gyetvay allegedly became the chief financial officer of a large Russian\ngas company. As part of his compensation package, Gyetvay allegedly received\nlucrative stock options and\/or stock-based compensation. Beginning in 2005,\nGyetvay allegedly opened the first of two different Swiss bank accounts to hold\nthese assets, which at one point had an aggregate value of over $93 million.\nOver a period of several years, Gyetvay allegedly took steps to conceal his\nownership and control over the foreign accounts and associated assets, such as\nremoving himself and making his then-wife, a Russian citizen, the beneficial\nowner of the accounts. Despite being a CPA, Gyetvay also allegedly did not\ntimely file his U.S. tax returns, nor did he file all of the required Reports\nof Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBARs) forms certain U.S. taxpayers are\nrequired to file annually that disclose their control over assets maintained in\nforeign bank accounts. Further, some of the tax returns he did file are\nallegedly false. The indictment also alleges that Gyetvay submitted a false\noffshore compliance filing with the IRS through the Streamlined Filing\nCompliance Procedures in which he attested that his prior failure to file FBARs\nand tax returns was non-willful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gyetvay is scheduled for his\ninitial court appearance today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Frazier of\nthe U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. If convicted, he\nfaces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each wire fraud count, five\nyears in prison for each failure to file FBAR count, five years in prison for\ntax evasion, five years in prison for making a false statement, three years in\nprison for each count of assisting in the preparation of a false tax return and\none year in prison for each willful failure to file a tax return count. The\ncase was assigned to U.S. District Judge John L. Badalamenti, who will\ndetermine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and\nother statutory factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney\nGeneral Stuart M. Goldberg of the Justice Department\u2019s Tax Division made the\nannouncement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IRS Criminal Investigation is\ninvestigating the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday the US Department of Justice announced\u00a0here\u00a0the indictment of Mark Anthony Gyetvay, who filed to enter IRS \u201cStreamlined Filing Compliance Procedures in which he attested that his prior failure to file FBARs and tax returns was non-willful.\u201d Apparently, his Streamlined filing was for foreign accounts valued at over $93 million. Not surprisingly the large account […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_daextam_enable_autolinks":"1","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-planning-for-tax-minimization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4061,"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4057\/revisions\/4061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patellawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}