The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has distributed another round of warning letters to U.S. taxpayers with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency holdings. This follows a similar initiative last year. The letters, dated August 14, 2020, are identified as Letter 6173, Letter 6174 and Letter 6174-A. If you have received one of these letters from the IRS, it is important that you speak with a Virginia tax defense attorney promptly.

Small businesses have always faced audit risks, but a recent development at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) means that small businesses could soon be facing enhanced scrutiny of their federal returns. On March 5, the IRS announced that its Small Business/Self Employed Division is opening a new Fraud Enforcement Office that will specifically be targeting small businesses that underreport and underpay their federal tax liability. The Fraud Enforcement Office is beginning operations in 2020.

The chief of the IRS Criminal Investigation Division (IRS-CI) spoke recently to a group of tax professionals at an event hosted by the American Bar Association.  Chief Don Fort told the tax attorneys who he was speaking to that the IRS now has two new enforcement units that are operational and that are working behind the scenes to analyze data to identify patterns and find taxpayers who are evading their U.S. tax obligations.