Penalties for Tax Evasion

Nothing gets IRS agents frothing at the mouth more than a good tax evasion case. If you get nailed for tax evasion, what kind of penalties are you looking at?

You can take every possible legal step to minimize your taxes and a court will tell the IRS to take a hike if it challenges the steps. Fall over the line into illegal maneuvers, however, and you are facing charges of tax evasion. In such a situation, you are in for a very bad experience. 

What are the penalties for tax evasion? Let’s start with the grey motel – jail. Yes, a single count for tax evasion carries a sentence of up to 5 years in jail. Most tax evasion cases come with multiple counts. Helio Castroneves faces six counts at the time this article is being written. If convicted, he faces 30 years in jail. That is a long time. With good behavior, years will be trimmed off. That being said, do you really want to spend even a day in jail?

The other side of penalties for tax evasion is financial. First, you are going to have to pay the back taxes along with penalties and interest. As a general rule, just double up whatever you were hiding and start adding money from there. Yes, that’s a lot of cash to come up with, particularly if you are sitting in jail! 

On top of that amount, you are also going to face fines for committing a crime. These usually run in the $250,000 range for each act of evasion. Much of the total penalty is dependent on the circumstances of the case, to wit, whether you come forward and voluntarily report the situation or fight the process through to the bitter end.

The penalties for tax evasion are pretty extreme. All and all, you would be best to avoid risking them. If you have any doubts of the consequences, sit down with a criminal attorney to find out more about the consequences. It will most likely scare you straight as they say.

 source :http://www.businesstaxrecovery.com