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OOH, LAS VEGAS

July 06, 2006

Irwin Schiff has been effectively removed from tax practice, but the pied piper of the zero-income 1040 was in business in Las Vegas for a long time before he was sent away. It's not surprising, then, that Las Vegas has its share of tax protester cases. The Tax Court dealt with two of them yesterday.

Las Vegas residents ("Vegans"?) Aaron Ball and Geoffrey Yuen filed returns showing zero income and tax; both returns also had statements with "frivolous" explanations of why they had no income, regardless of what their W-2s and 1099s said.

The IRS undertook collection action, and Messrs. Ball and Yuen fought back in Tax Court. They both lost, and the Tax Court hit Mr. Ball with a $5,000 fine for wasting the court's time.

The moral: the tax plan that got Irwin Schiff where he is today probably won't do you much good, either. In Vegas, the house always wins eventually.

Cites:

Ball, T.C. Memo 2006-141
Yuen, T.C. Memo 2006-138

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