Attitude Survey Shows Lower Satisfaction With IRS Customer Service
Before the Tax Season Starts, A Reminder to Choose Your Return Preparer Carefully
On December 30, 2014, New York Representative Michael Grimm (Rep.) announced he would resign as of January 5, 2015, according to a report by the Associated Press and CBS. The resignation follows his guilty plea on December 23 of this month to aiding and abetting in the preparation of a false tax return. The full DOJ press release can be found here.
As part of his guilty plea, Grimm stipulated to a number of facts regarding his criminal conduct and other relevant conduct. In short, Grimm was a member in a restaurant in Manhattan called “Healthalicious.” Grimm underreported the receipts of the business to the accountant preparing the return, apparently at least in part to offset “off the books” cash payments to employees who worked without proper legal status. As a result, Healthalicious was also underpaying state and federal payroll taxes, and workers’ compensation premiums.
Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a long-serving former California representative, also Republican, comes to mind when discussing tax-cheating scandals. In 2005, Cunningham pleaded guilty to accepting no less than $2.4 million in bribes and underreporting the income. However, according a 2011 article in the Daily Beast, while Republicans who were involved in scandals tended to cheat bigger, Democrats were the vast majority of cases by a large margin.