Thanks to the Tax Prof Blog, I picked up this article written by prolific tax lawyer and author, Robert W. Wood. The Article is "Ten Ways to Audit Proof Your Return" (published online by Forbes)
The strategies offered by Mr. Wood are variations on a theme I discuss in a recent article, John A. Townsend, Tax Obstruction Crimes: Is Making the IRS's Job Harder Enough, 9 Hous. Bus. & Tax. L.J. 255 (2009). Some of these strategies I present in more detail in the online appendix to the article.
The issue is whehter a tax obstruction crime exists when a taxpayer performs an otherwise legal act (illustrated by the strategies in Mr. Woods' article and in my article and appendix) with the intent to impair or impede the IRS's administration of the tax laws? Are Mr. Woods' and my examples which are specifically intended to lower the audit profile examples of conduct that should be subject to criminal punishment? Can readers discern a line between such conduct that is criminal and not criminal? Keep in mind that a bedrock principle of the tax law and other types of related crimes is that a hypothetical reasonable actor should be able to discern the line with clarity, otherwise there can be crime. If there is no discernable line, is there only prosecutorial discretion that keeps practitioners (including Mr. Wood and myself) who have engaged in variations on this theme over the years from prosecution? And, finally, would the courts cry foul as did Judge Kozinski in the Caldwell case?
I'll let my readers chew on those questions. I have already spoken ad nausuem. I would appreciate the readers' responses.
Have a great weekend!
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