The IRS CI Annual Report for 2020 has been released. The Annual Report always offers an interesting inside look at the work of special agents who focus entirely on criminal tax matters in the U.S.
The report reveals how the priorities of the agency are executed with the time and energy spent in each area. Drumroll please, here are some interesting factoids from the report this year:
- In 2020, the number of special agents rose one percent, from 2009 in 2019, to 2030 agents in 2020. Professional staff numbers rose almost 14 percent from 728 to 828 employees.
- The majority of direct investigative time (73.1 percent) spent by CI is on tax enforcement, including refund fraud, employment tax disputes, general tax fraud and abusive schemes, as well as identity theft, international crime, public corruption and corporate fraud. The agency spent 13.8 percent of its investigative time on non-tax issues like money laundering and general fraud, and 11.3 percent on investigations involving Organized Crime Drug Enforcement.
- CI identified $2.3 billion in tax fraud, and $8.4 billion in other financial crimes.
- CI initiated 1598 IRS criminal tax investigations and recommended 945 prosecutions. Executing 1226 warrants, the CI once again enjoyed a pretty high conviction rate of 90.4 percent on the criminal matters it prosecuted. From those cases, 593 people were sentenced on tax crimes in 2020.
Among other focus areas of CI, we are interested in non-tax crimes such as those involving the Bank Secrecy Act Program and international money laundering. The agency investigates hidden streams of money exiting or entering the U.S. and flowing through and to foreign institutions. In 2020, CI initiated 998 criminal investigations looking at currency and income violations. Of those almost all of them, 914, were recommended for prosecution and 633 people were sentenced.
A take-home point of this brief survey is that CI does a lot with the time and resources its tight budget can buy. Successful prosecution rates remain high—a good thought to keep in mind when considering personal or corporate compliance measures for the upcoming tax season.
When you have questions about foreign bank accounts, or tax irregularities of which you are aware in your organization, speak with an experienced tax lawyer to resolve your concerns before they become issues.
Experienced tax attorneys help you from offices in Chicago and Cleveland
Robert J. Fedor, Esq., LLC serves clients throughout the US and abroad. When you have questions about allegations of tax crime or business compliance, call us at 800-579-0997 or contact us.
