Tax fraud, according to an IRS lawyer in Tennessee is a serious crime and is often difficult to prove, unless you have solid evidence to support your position. Often, a tax fraud attorney will be called upon to use his or her expertise in court, rather than rely on police investigations. If you’ve been accused of committing tax fraud, it’s essential that you do not make any hasty decisions and hire an improper tax defense lawyer. Get the advice you need from a seasoned tax fraud attorney before it is too late.
There are several tax fraud defenses, but one of the most popular is the “innocent spouse” tax dodge. With this tactic, the husband or wife of the suspected tax dodger secures the services of a tax fraud attorney so that the suspect’s spouse doesn’t have to be charged with a criminal offense. The innocent spouse will then argue that they didn’t commit any crimes – after all, they had no idea that they were being investigated. This strategy works best when the suspected criminal has a large family or employs several people. The tax fraud attorney can then take advantage of short-term tax relief laws as well as longer term laws that deal with inheritance taxes and asset seizures.
Another common technique of a tax fraud defense lawyer is to argue that you simply did not know you were being investigated. If you’ve been accused of tax evasion, for example, you might argue that you had only received occasional notices and that anything related to your business should not have raised any red flags. In many cases, police are not interested in investigating small business owners – and if you’re lucky, they won’t even give your tax defense attorney a second look!
There are two major flaws in this approach. First, it’s almost impossible to defend against the charges at trial because it’s nearly impossible to show that you didn’t know you were under investigation. Second, without knowing the scope of the investigation, it’s entirely possible that you did know that you were under investigation and yet chose to keep quiet. This tax fraud defense often works because the prosecution’s primary aim is to convict you as guilty. If they can’t prove that you knew you were guilty, there’s nothing standing in their way to get a conviction.
But tax fraud defenses also fail when the charges against the suspect are based on shaky premises. For example, in some tax fraud cases, the charges can be based solely on circumstantial evidence (like how a suspicious individual acted before making a purchase or sending a package). Such evidence can be worthless, especially if it cannot be proven that the tax fraud actually occurred. Thus, your tax fraud defense attorney may try to argue that because the police have probable cause to believe that your act was criminal, it is therefore a valid defense. However, this argument rests entirely on the subjective state of probable cause: whether a reasonable person would believe that an act you did was unlawful based on the facts and evidence available to them.
In the end, every tax lawyer has their own unique style, but ultimately they all work towards the same goal: to win a case for their clients so that they can avoid paying taxes. If you think you’re facing a tax fraud charge in your area, discuss your options with a competent tax lawyer to see which may be the best tax fraud defense for your situation. Hopefully, this article has helped you learn a bit more about tax fraud defenses and how they can work in your favor.