IRS to Audit Sea Nine VEBA Participating Employers


The IRS may be auditing many more participating employers in the coming months.
In recent months, I have received phone calls from participants in the Sea Nine VEBA and have learned that the IRS may be auditing many more participating employers in the coming months. To better assist current Sea Nine clients and those that are now or may be under audit in the future, my associates who are CPAs, tax attys and former IRS employees
will continue to help with the Sea Nine VEBA victims and others in 419 412i captive insurance and section 79 scams and answer the following:

• What is the IRS’s position with respect to the Sea Nine VEBA,419 captive insurance and  section 79 scams?
• What will be the likely result of my audit?
• What if I don't agree with my audit results?
• What are other participants doing with respect to the audits?
• Will the IRS impose interest and penalties?
• What is a “listed transaction” ?
• What is Form 8886, and what are the penalties for failing to file Form 8886?
• Will I be responsible even if I relied on my tax advisor?
• What recourse do I have against those that promoted and sold the Sea Nine VEBA?

15 comments:

  1. Form 8886 & 419 Litigation Plans
    412i, 419e plans litigation and IRS Audit Experts for abusive insurance based plans deemed reportable or listed transactions by the IRS.

    Monday, January 21, 2013

    IRS to Audit Sea Nine VEBA Participating Employers

    December 20, 2012 By Lance Wallach, CLU, CHFC




    IRS audit of Sea Nine participating employers
    By Lance Wallach

    IRS audit of Sea Nine participating employers
    In recent months, I have received phone calls from participants in the Sea Nine VEBA and have learned that the IRS may be auditing many more participating employers in the coming months. To better assist current Sea Nine clients and those that are now or may be under audit in the future, my associates who are CPAs, tax attys and former IRS employees will continue to help with the Sea Nine VEBA victims and others in 419 412i captive insurance and section 79 scams and answer the following:

    ReplyDelete
  2. Participated in a Sea Nine VEBA plan_Contact Lance Wallach

    Wednesday, January 8, 2014

    IRS Put 419 Plans and VEBA Plans on Top of its Hit List
    There are some administrators still promoting 419 plans. It defies logic to me that sales people will sell something they know or should know will not hold up under IRS scrutiny just so they can sell cash value life insurance. Most of the rest of the 419 sales people are now selling captive insurance and section 79 scams that the IRS is just starting to audit. But badk to the 419 plan.Back in the day (1996–2000), 419 welfare benefit plans used to be all the rage as a way for profitable business owners to reduce their taxes and build a tax-favorable nest egg under the cover of an “employee benefit plan.”

    With an ambiguous tax code and some favorable tax court rulings, promoters of WPBs became emboldened and far too high profile in the late 1990s. This was amplified by the life insurance industry's internal marketing of WBPs because they were funded mainly with cash value life insurance.

    Without fully explaining how these plans worked, I will simply state that an employer could try to take deductions of $25,000–$300,000+ where all of the money would go into a WBP and into a CVL insurance policy where it could grow tax free for years.

    Depending on how aggressive the third-party administrator of these plans were, clients were told the money would either come out and be taxable when in retirement while some administrators even touted that business owners could get the money out tax free (which in my opinion was total nonsense, but that’s how they were sold).

    ReplyDelete
  3. 412i-419 Plans
    419 & 412i benefit plan,abusive tax shelters, Lance Wallach Expert Witness

    Friday, March 7, 2014
    412i-419 Plans: 412i-419 Plans: KENNETH ELLIOT: Sea Nine VEBA Impo...
    412i-419 Plans: 412i-419 Plans: KENNETH ELLIOT: Sea Nine VEBA Impo...: 412i-419 Plans: KENNETH ELLIOT: Sea Nine VEBA Important : KENNETH ELLIOT: Sea Nine VEBA Important : As of August 23,2013, the IRS has closed...



    Search Results
    RAMESH SARVA: Sarva- More You Should Know
    rameshsarvaveba.blogspot.com/2014/.../sarva-more-you-should-know.ht...‎
    Tuesday, January 7, 2014 ... Sarva has similarly made numerous false statements to his customers about the Sea Nine VEBA plans despite his notice that they are not compliant with Section 419A(f)(6). He touts his many years of work with Sea Nine VEBA plans to potential customers reassuring them that the plans are ...
    You and Lance Wallach +1'd this
    RAMESH SARVA: January 2014
    rameshsarvaveba.blogspot.com/2014_01_01_archive.html‎
    Jan 7, 2014 - Sarva- More You Should Know. Sarva has similarly made numerous false statements to his ... Sea Nine VEBA plans despite his notice that they are not compliant with ... Nine VEBA plans he urges his customers to adopt are not compliant ... nothing about whether its plan complies with Section 419A9(f)(6).

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  4. Lance Wallach and his associates provide Expert Witness Services
    Posted on January 9, 2014
    Lance Wallach Financial Group is a group of Expert Witness, Consulting, and Advisory Services provided by Lance Wallach and associates. Lance has impeccable credentials and 35 years of extensive professional experience addressing insurance, financial planning, pension plan, welfare benefit plan, and tax matters.

    Lance Wallach and his associates provide Expert Witness Services in federal courts, state courts, and arbitration venues throughout the United States. Lance also provides Consulting and Advisory Services to clients for non-litigation matters. She addresses technical and complex issues involving:
    Insurance and Annuity Matters
    §412(i) and §412(e)(3) Defined Benefit Pension Plans
    §419(e) and §419A(f)(6) Welfare Benefit Plans, and VEBA Plans
    Financial Planning
    Tax Matters
    This entry was posted in Uncategorized by Admin. Bookmark the permalink.
    0 THOUGHTS ON “LANCE WALLACH AND HIS ASSOCIATES PROVIDE EXPERT WITNESS SERVICES”
    lance on March 17, 2014 at 1:28 pm said:
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    Taxaudit419.com
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  5. Post navigation← Previous
    Lance Wallach and his associates provide Expert Witness Services
    Posted on January 9, 2014
    Lance Wallach Financial Group is a group of Expert Witness, Consulting, and Advisory Services provided by Lance Wallach and associates. Lance has impeccable credentials and 35 years of extensive professional experience addressing insurance, financial planning, pension plan, welfare benefit plan, and tax matters.

    Lance Wallach and his associates provide Expert Witness Services in federal courts, state courts, and arbitration venues throughout the United States. Lance also provides Consulting and Advisory Services to clients for non-litigation matters. She addresses technical and complex issues involving:
    Insurance and Annuity Matters
    §412(i) and §412(e)(3) Defined Benefit Pension Plans
    §419(e) and §419A(f)(6) Welfare Benefit Plans, and VEBA Plans
    Financial Planning
    Tax Matters
    This entry was posted in Uncategori

    ReplyDelete
  6. Blog - Form 8886
    irsform8886.com/Blog.html‎
    Posted by Lance Wallach at 12:11 PM 5 comments: Labels: abusive tax shelters, captive insurance, lance Wallach. Wednesday, November 20, 2013.
    You've visited this page 4 times. Last visit: 4/8/14
    Trusted Business Advisor Solutions - Live:The Changing Landscape
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    Oct 10, 2011 - Trusted Business Advisor Solutions - Live. Dedicated to serving the needs of the accounting profession, the Trusted Business Advisor Solutions ...
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    Lance Wallach Member of the AICPA faculty of teaching professionals. AICPA author, instructor & national speaker National Society of Accountants.Speaker of ...
    You've visited this page 3 times. Last visit: 4/8/14
    Why Choose the Lance Wallach Tea

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  7. Blog - Form 8886
    irsform8886.com/Blog.html‎
    Posted by Lance Wallach at 10:20 AM 16 comments: Labels: IRS, IRS Penalty, lance Wallach, Lance Wallach Expert Witness, Tax, Taxpayers. Friday, February ...
    You've visited this page 2 times. Last visit: 4/9/14

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  8. Expert Witness

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    Abusive Tax Shelter, Listed Transaction, Reportable Transaction Expert Witness
    Lance Wallach, CLU, CHFC
    68 Keswick Lane
    Plainview, New York 11803

    Phone(516) 938-5007
    Fax (516) 938-6330
    Overview
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    Lance Wallach is the nation's leading expert on 419 and 412i plans, captive insurance, abusive insurance plans, listed transactions, reportable transactions, section 79 plans, IRC 6707A, 8886 form filing, abusive tax shelters, and more.


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  9. Captive Insurance & 419 Plans Litigation
    412i, 419e plans litigation and IRS Audit Experts for abusive insurance based plans deemed reportable or listed transactions,412i, 419e plans litigation and IRS Audit Experts for abusive insurance based plans deemed reportable or listed transactions,Captive Insurance,Captive Insurance Lawsuits,412i Lawsuits,419 lawsuits,412i Help,419 Help, IRS Audits,412i Problems,412i problems, Expert Witness Lance Wallach,412i Help,419 Help, Benistar Lawsuits, 412i lawsuits,419 lawsuits,

    WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 2013
    IRS Wants You to Know About Schemes, Scams and Cons:


    Lance Wallach

    If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!" Seek professional advice from the IRS or a Tax Professional before you subscribe to any scheme that offers exemption from your obligation as a United States Citizen to pay taxes. Buying into a tax evasion scheme can be very costly.
    Department of Justice Press Releases on Civil and Criminal Actions Taken as a Result of IRS Enforcement Activities
    The Department of Justice issues press releases on IRS enforcement activities.
    Tax Scams: How to Recognize and Avoid Them
    To help the public recognize and avoid abusive tax schemes, the IRS offers an abundance of educational materials. Participating in an illegal scheme to avoid paying taxes can result in imprisonment and fines, as well as the repayment of taxes owed with penalties and interest. Education is the best way to avoid the pitfalls of these “too good to be true” tax scams.
    Tax Scams/Consumer Alerts
    Don't fall victim to tax scams. The IRS issues News Releases on some of the common scams, including the annual Dirty Dozen news release.
    Special Advice for Law Enforcement on Avoiding Tax Preparer Scams
    Enforcing the Laws and Paying Taxes: Is there a Connection?
    This is one of many outreach articles the IRS prepares to help educate the public about tax scams.
    Examples of Fraud Investigations
    In addition to the Tax Fraud Alerts page, Criminal Investigation (CI) wan

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  10. 412I PLANS

    Because of their large required contributions, these plans work only with established, highly profitable businesses. They usually work best when the business owner is within 10 years or so of retirement and is older than most of the company’s relatively few employees. In addition, the plan cannot make policy loans. Such a loan invalidates the plan altogether. There is no flexibility in investments, because the plan is funded entirely with insurance and annuity contracts. Finally, there may be limitations to the deductions or the amount of insurance that is purchased, and there may be an income component that is recaptured by the business owner.

    Posted by Lance Wallach at 2/25/2014 10:27 AM
    Categories: uncategorized
    Tags: 412i IRS taxshelters IRS_tax_penalties lance wallach expert witness

    ReplyDelete
  11. CPA Ramesh Sarva and Kenneth Elliot led Tax Fairy seekers to Section 419, which provides for VEBAs — “Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association” plans. Properly operated, VEBAs enable employers to make deductible contributions to a plan that buys insurance for employees.

    A company associated with Mr. Sarva and Mr. Elliot, Sea Nine, told employers that they could use VEBAs to get around the tax law rules against deducting most life insurance premiums. Their customers deducted contributions to VEBAs and used them to buy whole-life insurance policies with high cash value accumulation on the business owners’ lives. The owners then borrowed the cash values. The purported result was a deduction, followed by tax-free access to the deducted cash via borrowing cash values.

    Tax Fairy guides can always find willing customers: “…small business owners with high net worth (often doctors with small but lucrative medical practices),” according to the IRS complaint. It has not gone well for the Tax Fairy adherents:

    Sarva has successfully marketed at least 33 separate VEBAs plans to a variety of small business owners. All of these participants have been or are currently being audited by the IRS. 13 of these participant audits have been completed and have resulted in total tax adjustments of $3,500,519.

    In other words, it doesn’t work. The IRS warned people off of such plans as early as 1995, and the scheme was firmly shot down by a U.S. Court of Appeals in 2002 in the Neonatology Assoc. P.A. case. In fact, Neonatology was a Sea Nine client. Undaunted, Sea Nine kept selling the idea, selling the plans through “a network of affiliated third parties” including “independent certified publica accountants (“CPA”) and financial planners.” At least they did until yesterday, when they consented to a permanent injunction yesterday against further Tax Fairy hunts.

    Sea Nine had clients all over the place; the complaint lists clients in California, Florida, Alabama, and Hawaii, all with big IRS exam adjustments.

    A side note: This is another example of why preparer regulation will be little use in keeping practitioners on the straight and narrow. The defendant was a CPA and as such faced much stricter credentialing than anything contemplated by the IRS. Yet he continued to sell these plans for years after it should have been obvious that they didn’t work.

    The Moral? There is no Tax Fairy, and just because somebody has gotten away with something for a long time doesn’t mean they’ve found her. Also: you can make somebody take a test. You can make them somebody take CPE. But you can’t make a bumbler competent or a scammer honest.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Lance Wallach Lance Wallach
    Managing Director at VEBA LLC.
    Following
    bad financial advisors 2212 views, 132 likes
    Feb 3, 20169 views2 Like0 CommentsShare on LinkedInShare on FacebookShare on Twitter
    Bad Advisors
    One of the biggest problems in the financial services and insurance industries is the number of “Bad Advisors.”

    What is a Bad Advisor? I’ll give you a little summary.

    — Bad Financial Planner

    A financial planner can be considered a bad advisor for a number of different reasons (a few listed below):

    1) The advisor recommends Section 79 Plans as beneficial wealth building tools.

    2) The advisor might work with a Broker Dealer (BD) who ties their hands and restricts the

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  13. Lance Wallach Lance Wallach
    Managing Director at VEBA LLC.
    Following
    bad financial advisors 2212 views, 132 likes
    Feb 3, 20169 views2 Like0 CommentsShare on LinkedInShare on FacebookShare on Twitter
    Bad Advisors
    One of the biggest problems in the financial services and insurance industries is the number of “Bad Advisors.”

    What is a Bad Advisor? I’ll give you a little summary.

    — Bad Financial Planner

    A financial planner can be considered a bad advisor for a number of different reasons (a few listed below):

    1) The advisor recommends Section 79 Plans as beneficial wealth building tools.

    2) The advisor might work with a Broker Dealer (BD) who ties their hands and restricts the

    ReplyDelete
  14. 1 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN ...
    https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/...alsd-1.../USCOURTS-alsd-1_07-cv-00883-1.pdf
    Nov 12, 2010 - Kenneth Elliott was an employee of Sea Nine and the administrator of ... Mr. Elliott served two roles in regards to the VEBA plans: one as “the ...

    ReplyDelete
  15. VEBA lawsuits audits get your money back
    Published on Published onJanuary 19, 2018
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    Lance Wallach
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    Abusive tax shelters, 419, section 79, 412i micro captive insurance, VEBA, expert witness, author, speaker
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    John Hancock Life Insurance Co. of New York and Nationwide Life Insurance Co. are in the crosshairs of a pair of lawsuits challenging their involvement with a disbarred attorney who mishandled millions of dollars of employer-sponsored cash value life insurance policies ( Hausknecht v. John Hancock Life Ins. Co. of N.Y. , E.D. Pa., No. 2:17-cv-03911, complaint filed 8/31/17 ; Corman v. Nationwide Life Ins. Co. , E.D. Pa., No. 2:17-cv-03912, complaint filed 8/31/17 ).

    At issue in the case is the multiple-employer welfare arrangement designed and created by disbarred attorney John Koresko and his entities—commercially known as REAL VEBA. The arrangement drew multiple lawsuits by the Labor Department and participants who suffered losses due to Koresko’s mishandling of several aspects of the REAL VEBA.

    John Hancock and Nationwide are accused of selling their life insurance products through the arrangement and encouraging their agents to recommend it despite allegedly knowing that its nature was misrepresented, according to two separate lawsuits filed Aug. 31 in federal court in Pennsylvania. The insurers also allowed Koresko to convert plan assets by authorizing loans in violation of ERISA, the lawsuits alleges

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