Another Northern California Restaurant Tax Crime Conviction

Yaowapha Ritdet, a restaurant owner from Ukiah, California,  was sentenced on April 26, 2017 to 24 months in prison for corruptly endeavoring to obstruct the Internal Revenue Code and harboring illegal aliens for profit.

For more, see:
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/northern-california-restaurant-owner-sentenced-24-months-prison-obstructing-tax-laws

San Francisco Bay Area Chinese Food Buffet Wage and Tax Law Violators Sentenced

Owners and managers of a San Francisco Bay Area Chinese restaurant chain have been convicted and sentenced to prison for violating California wage laws and failure to pay California taxes.

For more on this story, please visit:
http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/06/20/former-restaurant-owners-hit-with-6-1-million-restitution-prison-sentence-in-massive-wage-theft-case/

IRS Can No Longer Charge User Fees For PTINs

The IRS recently lost a class action lawsuit on how they manage and charge for the Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) program.  The IRS PTIN program was updated to include an annual renewal and annual renewal fees several years ago.  This was ostensibly to combat tax preparer fraud, yet the IRS was never quite able to articulate how it combated fraud and how much fraud it prevented.  The 2014 Loving case is a related case in which the IRS lost the ability to regulate tax preparers.

For more see:
https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-loses-lawsuit-over-ptin-fees-suspends-ptin-system-and-and-may-be-forced-to-refund-preparers

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2017/06/05/irs-loses-175-million-class-action-lawsuit/#201714341d02

http://www.ptinclassaction.com/

http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/news/2016/oct/ptin-class-action-lawsuit-201615343.html