San Diego Lawyer Barred from Tax Preparation

A federal court has permanently barred tax lawyer Scott A. Waage of San Diego and his law firm from providing tax advice and from preparing federal tax returns for others.

Waage agreed to the injunction without admitting the allegations against him.

The government complaint alleged that Waage, a self-proclaimed “visionary tax attorney,” promoted tax-fraud schemes that helped customers evade income taxes through a concept he called “Strategic Integrated Planning.” According to the complaint, one of Waage’s schemes involved creating and using sham consulting corporations, headquartered in customers’ homes, that did not perform consulting services. Customers funneled funds to the sham companies to pay for and improperly deduct the customers’ personal expenses, the complaint alleged.

Waage also unlawfully used employee benefit plans to pay customers’ personal expenses and used pension plans to illegally increase and accelerate deductions and avoid income taxes on plan payouts (illegally structured and funded by life insurance contracts), according to the complaint. CPA Robert O. Jensen allegedly prepared the customers’ returns claiming the bogus deductions generated by Waage’s schemes.

Last March, Jensen was enjoined from preparing tax returns that understate income.

The government complaint alleges that Waage’s schemes robbed the Treasury of more than $10.8 million.

The injunction order requires Waage to give the government a list of all clients who used his tax-planning or tax-prep services since 2001. He must also send his former clients notice of the injunction order.