Tax fraud

The former tax preparer for Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, one of the stars of the MTV reality TV series “Jersey Shore,” and his brother, Marc Sorrentino, pleaded guilty Wednesday to filing fraudulent tax returns on their behalf.

Credit Agricole SA’s unit in Switzerland agreed to pay $99.2 million to avoid prosecution through a U.S. program that has secured almost $742 million in penalties from 64 Swiss banks that disclosed how they helped Americans evade taxes.

A New York tax preparer received a 12-month prison sentence and was ordered to pay $144,604.00 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service after he was convicted of preparing false tax returns.

A roundup of some of our favorite new tax fraud cases.

ADP is participating in an Internal Revenue Service pilot program to test verification codes on W-2 forms in an effort to reduce tax refund fraud.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc agreed to pay 23.8 million euros ($26 million) to settle allegations from German prosecutors that its Swiss Coutts & Co. Ltd. private bank helped some clients evade tax.

The Internal Revenue Service has extended its hold on certain tax refunds for returns filed by nonresident aliens and other foreign taxpayers on Form 1040NR beyond the usual 180-day limit in order to give extra scrutiny to the refund claims, leaving many undocumented immigrant workers waiting up to 360 days to get the tax refunds they filed this year.

Some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

The Internal Revenue Service plans to make improvements in the way it assists victims of tax-related identity theft after a new government report says further improvements are needed.

The Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation unit released its annual report Thursday, as the group contends with a shrinking budget and recent controversy over its use of cell phone tracking technology.