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YOU CAN'T POP THE BALLOON SLOWLY

July 16, 2007

George Schussel had a reasonably successful tax cheating operation going at his company. He was funnelling corporate income to a Bermuda company as false expenses, and over a period of years he avoided taxes on $8 million of income.

Then he ran into a snag. He wanted to sell the company, but the phony expenses made the company look less valuable than it really was. Somehow in the selling process the tax evasion scheme came to light. The results are not good for Mr. Schussel; he was sentenced to five years in prison, two years supervised release, and a $125,000 fine. He also still has to pay his taxes, possibly with a 75% addition for civil fraud penalties.

The moral? The more you succeed at tax fraud, the bigger the hole you dig for yourself.

Taxable Talk has more.

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