Tag Archives: tax shelters

Captive Insurance Risk Alert

Tax practitioners should be cognizant of the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) increasing and focused activity related to micro-captive insurance companies (hereinafter referred to as Captive Insurances. Captive Insurance Risk Alert

Additional scrutiny and skepticism may increase the professional liability risk of a CPA firm. CPA firms with clients who have established, or are considering establishing, a Captive should pay special attention to this Risk Alert.

IRS Audits Micro-Captives

IRS Audits Micro-Captives Shortly after the Internal Revenue Service once again warned taxpayers to steer clear of unscrupulous promoters selling abusive micro-captives. It is part of the IRS annual Dirty Dozen listing. The IRS Large Business and International (LB&I) Division touted the success of its partnership with the Small Business/Self-Employed Division in carrying out the micro-captive campaign.

The US Tax Court handed the IRS its third straight victory involving a small captive structure in Syzygy v. Commissioner. Six days after the Syzygy opinion was issued, LB&I announced the initiation of a “Captive Services Provider Campaign” aimed at ensuring US multinational companies pay their captives no more than arm’s-length prices.2 The IRS is clearly moving quickly to address tax compliance issues in the captive world.

The IRS has now obtained victories in cases involving both forms of small captives electing tax-exempt status under § 501(c)(15) and captives electing to be taxed only on investment income under § 831(b). With each victory in court, the IRS has succeeded in highlighting problematic program design features and implementation missteps. Going forward, IRS revenue agents and appeals officers will likely look to the deficiencies identified in the case law in resolving captive controversies.

Lance Wallach receives hundreds of calls annually to help people fight the IRS and get their money back from the promoters of these scams. As an expert witness, Lance’s side has never lost a lawsuit. Google Lance Wallach and your advisor, who do you trust?

+1 516-236-8440

Wallachinc@gmail.com

IRS Gathers Information on Taxpayers

Since the time when micro-captive insurance companies were placed on the IRS Dirty Dozen list of tax scams, it has also been identified as a transaction of interest.

The IRS continues to expand its enforcement efforts of what it views as abusive micro-captive insurance arrangements.

The IRS gathers information on taxpayers and institutes a new virtual currency compliance program.

Excerpt from one of their notices; We have information that you have or had at least one account containing virtual currency. Yet may not have properly reported your transactions involving virtual currency, which may include cryptocurrency and/or non-crypto virtual currencies.

A new IRS Notice 6174-A which states that the IRS clearly sees noncompliance on virtual currency transactions as a threat to the tax system.

As if the onslaught of recent losses in Tax Court was not enough, investors in syndicated conservation easements now have more to worry about.

The Senate Finance Committee released a bipartisan report condemning syndicated conservation easements as abusive and therefore encouraging the IRS to take further action to ferret out such abuse.

Lance Wallach has received hundreds of calls in order to help citizens fight the IRS on this subject and help sue the promotors of easement, captive, and cryptocurrency plans.

Your advisor! Who do you trust?

wallachinc@gmail.com

U.S. Department Of Justice Files Suit

The U.S. Department Of Justice Files Suit To Enforce An IRS Summons Against The Delaware Department Of Insurance For Artex Transactions tax shelters.

tax shelters. On June 19, 2020, the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice filed a Petition To Enforce Summons against the Delaware Department Of Insurance, which seeks testimony and certain documents relating to Artex Risk Solutions, Inc. and Tribeca Strategic Advisors, LLC in connection with its promoter audits of those companies. Concurrently with the Petition, the DOJ also filed the Declaration of IRS Revenue Agent Bradley Keltner and the Summons that it is attempting to enforce. Artex/Tribeca is affiliated with publicly-traded Arthur J. Gallagher.

According to the Petition, the IRS is conducting a promoter audit, known as a “6700 audit” from § 6700 of the U.S. Tax Code that creates penalties for the promoters of tax shelters. In this case, says the Petition the IRS is investigating whether Artex and Tribeca marketed and sold so-called “micro captives”, i.e., captive insurance companies qualifying under IRC § 831(b), as tax shelters — which for both Artex and Tribeca is like wading out into the ocean to look for water. The Petition also notes that a class action (Shivkov v. Artex), which I have written about previously, had been brought against Artex and others for not telling their clients that they were entering into an abusive tax transaction.

The Petition goes on to say that the Delaware Department Of Insurance (DDOI) issued 191 insurance certificates to companies associated with Artex, and that the information sought by the IRS might indicate whether Artex made false or misleading statements in organizing those captives. For instance, according to the Petition, there are instances where the DDOI was apparently complicit in backdating Delaware certificates of authority (basically, insurance licenses), such as one was where the certificate was backdated almost two months from February 25, 2013 back to December 31, 2012 — after which Artex then rewarded six

According to the Petition, the DDOI has failed to fully comply with the IRS Summons directed to it, such as failing to produce all the e-mails between the DDOI and Artex (and its predecessor Tribeca).

More juicy facts are found in the sworn Declaration of IRS Revenue Agent Bradley Keltner, including that the DDOI has so far turned over to the IRS over 18,331 pages of documents related to 16 Delaware captives.

ANALYSIS

As shocking as the allegations of backdating and complicity in tax shelter schemes might be to the reader who is unfamiliar with the area of captive insurance tax shelters, this is simply what has gone on for the last decade with the insurance departments of several states that have served as mass outlets for risk-pooled 831(b) captive insurance companies. While the Delaware Department of Insurance may be the first to be caught in backdating documents, I can assure you that they are not the only such department to have done it.

The hard truth is that the so-called micro captive tax shelter industry utilizes a lot of — well, let’s just call them what they are — corrupt co-conspirators. The industry requires actuaries who anticipate huge losses from year to year even though those losses have never actually materialized in any year, underwriters who intentionally draft policies so that nobody can figure out what is actually being covered, accountants who turn a blind eye to numerous red flags, lawyers who write opinion letters of dubious validity, and at the center of it all the captive managers who market, sell and keep the clients writing checks to everybody.

There is one more necessary piece to this puzzle, one more group of corrupt co-conspirators for which the entire scheme would fail in the absence of their misdeeds: The state “captive commissioners” and the unit within the state’s insurance department that oversees captive insurance companies. For each and every captive tax shelter relies very heavily on that one sheet of paper — the captive’s license or certificate or authority — without which the shelter would be stillborn. And corruptly conspire they do.

The captive deputies have a powerful incentive to sell as many captives as they can, without regard to the quality of any individual captive. Bigger numbers means more revenue generated by their sections, which leads to bigger staff, greater prestige, and sometimes higher salaries. The departments are themselves frequently willing to turn a blind eye towards what their captive sections are doing, because the department can report to the state legislature a larger number of licenses issued, and thus seek a bigger budget. But between states, the captive insurance marketplace is very competitive: Most of the states have more-or-less the same captive statutes, and if one enacts something better then the rest follow quickly, and most of the states charge about the same for their insurance licenses.

What that leaves is something known as the captive industry as “flexibility”, which means that while most insurance departments are restrained by doing things by the book, have rigorous internal controls, and no backdating a document. A few other insurance departments don’t quite have the same scruples. Instead, some of the captive jurisdictions have earned reputations as being “flexible”. That means that they will bend, break or simply ignore the rules to facilitate the licensure of a new tax sheltered captive. The captives they are licensing don’t make any economic sense but are simply formed for the purpose of cheating Uncle Sam out of a few bucks in taxes. The regulators go along with it because they benefit too. Thus, ignoring or twisting their own rules in the name of “flexibility” as to what constitutes a legitimate captive. These regulators indeed became corrupt co-conspirators too.

Note that “flexibility” is not just in allowing the formation of the captive, but how the captive continues to be regulated in the following years. Here is where the captive deputies really show their complicity in running tax shelters, since they see the same captive managers and same actuaries submitting reporters over and over which predict that losses will be X in the coming year, but it turns out very consistently that the actual losses were actually less than 5% of X. In the real insurance world, consistently missing predicted losses by such a huge margin would be pretty good evidence that false actuarial studies were being submitted, but it is here that the captive deputies know that if they required accurate reporting, then the captives couldn’t charge as much premiums as their clients want for their tax deductions, and everybody would lose business — so the captive deputies simply ignore it all.

This is exactly where the “flexible” insurance departments engage in what cannot be characterized as anything short of tax fraud, i.e., issuing insurance certificates based on actuarial studies that are obviously inaccurate just so that the ultimate taxpayers can generate a false deduction through the vehicle of falsely-inflated premiums. While a tax shelter promoter taking a half-dozen employees of the DDOI to breakfast isn’t exactly the most corrupt quid pro quo, it does illustrate the fundamental coziness between the insurance departments who rely upon the promoters to bring licensure business in, and the promoters who rely upon the insurance departments to issue captive licenses no matter how obviously the application indicates a tax shelter captive.

Delaware was one of the first “flexible” jurisdictions, and at captive conferences for years the folks of the Delaware Department of Insurance went out of its way to express to the industry that Delaware was open for “pure tax” captives, so long as application fee checks cleared. Thus, in just a few years, Delaware went from being a state with few captives to being one of the most prolific issuers of captive licenses; 191 to Artex alone as the Petition here states.

Shortly thereafter, two other states, Tennessee and North Carolina, also exploded in the number of their captive licenses issues also because they were holding themselves out as “flexible” — it would frankly surprise me to find out that of each of Tennessee and North Carolina’s hundreds of captive licenses issued, either one has more than a handful of micro captives that are not just tax shelters. Because Delaware is a corporate hub, it probably has a goodly number of legitimate captives, but I would similarly be surprised if less than 90% of its micro captives are not of the tax shelter varietal.

Where Delaware really kicked the sales of tax shelter micro captives into overdrive was in the area of so-called “cell captives” which are organized as Delaware Series LLCs. The idea here was that a tax shelter promoter could form just one parent captive, and then have a bunch of children captives of that parent in which their clients could participate. These cell captives were sold by the bushel to folks who could not afford sufficient premiums to make their own standalone captives worthwhile, such as doctors and other small businesspersons who had high incomes who were looking to shelter income.

Interestingly, the insurance departments of other states quickly replicated this model so that they could also get their piece of the cell captive tax shelter pie by licensing individual cells of Delaware Series LLC in their own states. Tennessee, for instance, licensed a lot of these. The percentage of legitimate captives in these Series LLC programs is very low, probably less than 5%. If a state regulator cross-indexed those captives organized as Delaware Series LLCs against those whose losses were less than 20% of premiums for two consecutive years, the resulting list of captives could safe be put into the “terminate immediately” pile.

One would think that when the IRS issued Notice 2016-66 and listed captives as a “transaction of interest” that such would have put the kibosh on the states aggressively competing for tax sheltered captive sales, but in fact the last several years have seen the rise of a new regulatory player in this sector, albeit not quite a state: Puerto Rico. The captive programs coming out of Puerto Rico take abusive to an entirely new level, and office of the Puerto Rico insurance commissioner seems to welcome that business with open arms.

Meanwhile, captive managers in the “flexible” states continue to market and sell abusive micro captive programs, albeit they are working much harder to try to make it appear (falsely) that they are only selling captives for bona fide insurance reasons. Where many other states that offer captive licenses have significantly backed off taking new micro captive business, there are still a few states out there that are hungry for new business no matter how much it smells. These insurance departments still want to go to their legislatures for bigger budgets, bigger staffs, more prestige, etc., and it that takes complicity in tax fraud then that is what it takes. And they’ll keep getting IRS Summons as here too.

Finally, it is hard to figure out why Gallagher continues to hold on to Artex other than maybe blind speculation that Gallagher affirmatively wants to be in the tax shelter business. Otherwise, it makes little sense. Buying Tribeca made little sense to begin with, since it was a notorious tax shelter captive shop that had all the subtlety of a hooker wearing skimpy clothing who waives at cars passing by, and fit nowhere in Gallagher’s traditional business model.

The Artex/Tribeca deal has to go down as one of the singularly worst transactions in Gallagher’s history, and indeed Gallagher now finds itself on the wrong end of a class action suit because of it all. Strange; it seems like maybe Gallagher’s Board of Directors is asleep at the controls on this one. They would be well advised to just totally axe Artex, move its assets and legitimate non-tax business to a new insurance company that doesn’t have any of Tribeca’s taint, and vow never to do anything like this again. But somehow Artex survives. Again, strange.

I have been an expert witness in captive insurance cases. This article is from Jay Adkinson. If you are in a captive you need help NOW.

Micro-Captive and the IRS

The IRS correspondence received by taxpayers has caused confusion as to how to respond and whether a taxpayer’s micro-captive insurance arrangement will be respected.

Taxpayers still engaged in a micro-captive insurance arrangement should consider whether and how to respond to the IRS.

Based on concerns raised in IRS Notice 2016-66, questions to determine if the captive insurance arrangement is acceptable may include the following:

  • Does the micro-captive insurance coverage match a business need or risk to the insured?
  • Does the coverage duplicate other insurance coverage already in place?
  • Are premium payments calculated to cover risk based on an analysis consistent with industry standards?
  • Are premium payments consistent with premiums required under commercially available insurance contracts?
  • Is there documentation of insurance coverage?
  • Has the captive insurance company registered as an insurance company with the applicable government agency?
  • If the captive insurance company is an offshore entity, has it elected under section 953(d) to be taxed as a U.S. insurance company?
  • Does the captive insurance company have procedures for the handling of claims?
  • Does the captive insurance company have adequate reserves to cover claims?
  • Does the captive insurance company have assets that significantly exceed the necessary reserves?
  • Does the captive insurance company invest in illiquid or speculative assets?
  • Does the captive insurance company provide loans to related parties?

Although no one factor is dispositive of a bona fide captive insurance arrangement, these questions should be considered by taxpayers to gain an understanding of the micro-captive insurance arrangement and to evaluate their own arrangements. In addition, there is a real concern that the IRS may begin examining taxpayers who are still engaged in micro-captive insurance transactions. Taxpayers should contact Lance Wallach at 516-938-5007 for any questions or concerns regarding their Captive Investments.


Lance Wallach, CLU, CHFC, CIMC, National Society of Accountants Speaker of the Year and member of the AICPA faculty of teaching professionals is a frequent speaker on abusive tax shelters, Captive Insurance and Conservation Easements. He speaks at more than ten conventions annually and writes for over fifty publications.

Lance Wallach does expert witness testimony and has never lost a case!

Captive Insurance Plans Will Be Audited

Captive Insurance Plans.CIC Services has suggested that the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) “scare tactics” have left businesses unprepared amid the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The captive management company explained that in light of the current pandemic, many businesses “now regret their decision to forgo insuring their business via a captive insurance company”.

CIC Services said that this was a decision “strongly influenced by the IRS’s targeting of certain captive insurance arrangements and its refusal to provide honest taxpayers with any substantive guidance about operating such companies in good faith”.

The firm added that because of such “harassment” many businesses who desperately need captive insurance have declined to form a captive insurance company due to fear of “buying an IRS audit”.

CIC Services said: “Many businesses who once enjoyed the insurance protection offered by a captive insurance company have since shut down their captives for identical reasons. These businesses now find themselves unprotected and uninsured during one of the most profound periods of uncertainty the country has faced in decades.”

The Tennessee-based firm revealed that it has seen its own clients hurt by “IRS scare tactics”.

Randy Sadler, who leads CIC Services’ marketing and client empowerment, said: “Over the years we’ve talked with many physicians groups that earn most of their income from elective surgeries. All of them have now been devastated by this coronavirus—they lost their income stream when the states banned all elective procedures.”

He added: “Unfortunately, the IRS’s scare tactics dissuaded many of them from setting up a captive insurance company that would have helped them endure this interruption to business. But our clients who do have them are mostly thrilled at the movement, IRS concerns or not.”

Earlier this year, CIC Services petitioned the Supreme Court of the US to hear its lawsuit against the IRS regarding IRS Notice 2016-66. CIC Services revealed that its lawsuit continued to gain increasing support from legal scholars and it expects to have a ruling on the petition “within a couple of months”.

“Too many people think of captive insurance arrangements as a tax strategy,” said Sadler. He concluded: “But while there may or may not be tax benefits in a given instance, there are essential and sometimes business-saving risk management and insurance benefits in every instance. Taxpayers can always enjoy the latter regardless of whether or not they choose to pursue the former.”

IRS extends deadline for micro-captive filing positions

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has extended the deadline for the micro-captive insurance filing positions from 4 May to 4 June 2020 due to the current COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement, the IRS said that due to the current conditions, taxpayers may need additional time beyond the original deadline in May due date to provide written responses.

The IRS noted that those who received the letter do not need to reach out to the IRS to confirm the extension.

If additional time beyond 4 June is required, the IRS urged taxpayers to get in contact. The IRS said it will continue to monitor the situation, including the impact of current operations.

Micro Captive Insurance audit deal from IRS

The IRS is offering a settlement to up to 200 taxpayers currently under audit for abusive micro-captive insurance transactions following three court wins backing the government’s position. Micro Captive Insurance

A captive insurance company is basically an insurance company created by a company in order to insure itself. Perhaps because it couldn’t find an outside insurer, or because doing so would present a better financial choice. While such companies are generally legal, the IRS issued a notice saying that, in certain cases, transactions with these captive companies count as tax evasion.

In such cases, the insurer is structured that it can qualify as a small insurance company, at which point it can elect to be taxed only on its investment income. This means that the company that owns the insurer can deduct premiums as business expenses. The premiums do not count as income for the insurer. The IRS noted that in such transactions, the insurer lacks many of the attributes of actual insurance. 

The IRS will continue to disallow the tax benefits claimed in these abusive transactions. They will continue to defend its position in court. The IRS has decided, however, to offer to settle some of these cases. The settlement requires a substantial concession of the income tax benefits claimed by the taxpayer, together with appropriate penalties.

Taxpayers who are eligible for the settlement will be notified of the terms by letter from IRS. The initiative is currently limited to taxpayers with at least one open year under examination. Taxpayers that also have unresolved years under the jurisdiction of the IRS Appeals may also be eligible. Those with pending docketed years under Counsel’s jurisdiction are not eligible. The IRS is continuing to assess whether the settlement offer should be expanded to others.

Taxpayers who receive letters under this settlement offer, but opted out will continue to be audited by the IRS under  normal procedures. Potential outcomes may include full disallowance of captive insurance deductions, inclusion of income by the captive and imposition of all applicable penalties.

Although taxpayers that decline to participate will have full appeals rights, the IRS Independent Office of Appeals is aware of this resolution initiative. Given the current state of the law, it is the view of the IRS Independent Office of Appeals that these terms generally reflect the hazards of litigation faced by taxpayers, and taxpayers should not expect to receive better terms in Appeals than those offered under this initiative.

Taxpayers that are offered this private resolution and decline to participate will not be eligible for any potential future settlement initiatives. The IRS also plans to continue to open additional exams in this area as part of ongoing work to combat these abusive transactions.

“The IRS is taking this step in the interests of sound tax administration”, IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said. “We encourage taxpayers under exam and their advisors to take a realistic look at their matter and carefully review the settlement offer, which we believe is the best option for them given recent court cases. We will continue to vigorously pursue these and other similar abusive transactions going forward.”

Written by: Lance Wallach, CLU, CHFC, CIMC, Author, National Society of Accountants Speaker of the year and member of the AICPA faculty of teaching professionals.

Captive Insurance Audit Settlements

The Internal Revenue Service announced that the mailing of a time-limited settlement offer for certain taxpayers under audit who participated in abusive micro-captive insurance transactions. Captive Insurance Audit

Taxpayers eligible for this offer will be notified by letter with the applicable terms. Taxpayers who do not receive such a letter are not eligible for this resolution.

Abusive micro-captives have been a concern to the IRS for several years. The transactions have appeared on the IRS “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams since 2014. In 2016, the Department of Treasury and IRS issued Notice 2016-66 (PDF). Some  identified certain micro-captive transactions as having the potential for tax avoidance and evasion.

Following wins in three recent U.S. Tax Court cases, the IRS has decided to offer settlements to taxpayers currently under exam. In recent days, the IRS started sending notices to up to 200 taxpayers.

Tax law generally allows businesses to create “captive” insurance companies to protect against certain risks. Under section 831(b) of the Internal Revenue Code, certain small insurance companies can choose to pay tax only on their investment income. In abusive “micro-captive” structures, promoters, accountants or wealth planners persuade owners of closely held entities to participate in schemes that lack many of the attributes of genuine insurance.

IRS has consistently disallowed the tax benefits claimed by taxpayers in abusive micro-captive structures. Although some taxpayers have challenged the IRS position in court, none have been successful. To the contrary, the Tax Court has now sustained the IRS’ disallowance of the claimed tax benefits in three different cases.

The IRS will continue to disallow the tax benefits claimed in these abusive transactions and will continue to defend its position in court. The IRS has decided, however, to offer to resolve certain of these cases on the terms outlined below.

“Now the IRS is taking this step in the interests of sound tax administration,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said. “We encourage taxpayers under exam and their advisors to take a realistic look at their matter and carefully review the settlement offer, which we believe is the best option for them given recent court cases. We will continue to vigorously pursue these and other similar abusive transactions going forward.”

The settlement brings finality to taxpayers with respect to the micro-captive insurance issues. The settlement requires substantial concession of the income tax benefits claimed by the taxpayer together with appropriate penalties (unless the taxpayer can demonstrate good faith, reasonable reliance). Taxpayers eligible for the settlement will be notified of the terms by letter from IRS.

The initiative is currently limited to taxpayers with at least one open year under exam. Taxpayers who also have unresolved years under the jurisdiction of the IRS Appeals may also be eligible, but those with pending docketed years under Counsel’s jurisdiction are not eligible. The IRS is continuing to assess whether the settlement offer should be expanded to others.

Taxpayers who receive letters under this settlement offer, but who opt not to participate, will continue to be audited by the IRS under its normal procedures. Potential outcomes may include full disallowance of captive insurance deductions, inclusion of income by the captive, and imposition of all applicable penalties.

Although taxpayers who decline to participate will have full Appeals rights, the IRS Independent Office of Appeals is aware of this resolution initiative. Given the current state of the law, it is the view of the IRS Independent Office of Appeals that these terms generally reflect the hazards of litigation faced by taxpayers, and taxpayers should not expect to receive better terms in Appeals than those offered under this initiative.

Taxpayers who are offered this private resolution and decline to participate will not be eligible for any potential future settlement initiatives. The IRS also plans to continue to open additional exams in this area as part of ongoing work to combat these abusive transactions. 

abusive micro-captive transactions

Read More

For the third consecutive year, the IRS places abusive micro-captive insurance tax shelters on its list of “Dirty Dozen” tax scams. IRS takes next step on abusive micro-captive transactions; nearly 80 percent accept settlement, 12 new audit teams established


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