I hear from people every week who think their tax problem is the end of the world. It usually isn't. I'm Darrin Mish. I've resolved over $100 million in tax debt for clients. Here's what you should know.
The California government is petitioning a judge for jail time for ‘tax lady’ Roni Deutch after she purposely shredded millions of pages of tax documents after a court order prohibiting her from doing so was issued. The court order specifically instructed Deutch not to destroy the documents in a $34 million lawsuit that accused her of cheating her tax clients.
Last August, the then California Attorney General, Edmund G. Brown Jr. filed a lawsuit against Deutch and charged her with carrying out a ‘heartless scheme that swindled people with tax problems’. A-G Brown Jr. said of Deutch, “She promises to significantly reduce their IRS tax debts, but instead preys on their vulnerability, taking large up-front payments but providing little or no help in lowering their tax bills.”
On Wednesday, the present California A-G, Kamala D. Harris filed an application in Superior Court for a motion to hold Deutch in contempt, charging her of repeatedly violating the court’s orders. Ironically, Deutch is a lawyer and member of the Bar in California. Harris commented, “Deutch is an officer of this Court and a member of the Bar, which only serves to magnify the seriousness of Deutchs violations of the Courts orders. If anyone can be expected to respect and follow this Courts orders, it should be those licensed to practice as attorneys before the Court. The harm caused by Deutchs contempt is worthy of the most severe sanction.”
According to the court order, Deutch was to ‘take reasonable steps to preserve every document’ that has to do with her case. However, Harris said, “The very next day after the (court issued the order), Deutch conducted a purge of law firm documents that resulted in the shredding of nearly 2,000 pounds of the firm’s documents, or about 200,000 pages. The millions of pages that Deutch shredded while the document preservation order was in effect are permanently destroyed because the shredding company double shreds the documents and then bales them for resale to the recycling industry. There is absolutely no way for the people to know, much less recover, what Deutch shredded ”
Furthermore, Deutch also did not comply with a preliminary injunction that required her to refund unearned fees to her clients within 60 days. She admitted to keeping over $400,000 in refund requests that were over 60 days old.
According to A-G Harris’ filing, Deutch also gave $12,000 to her brother, Scott Juceam to enable him to open a tax debt resolution business, the Juceam Group which is housed in one of Deutch’s business premises.
Deutch has often advertised her services on popular media like late-night cable TV and offered tax advice on the Today Show, CNN and CNBC. For example, one of her ads entitled ‘It’s Your Turn’ depicts the story of 3 of her clients she supposedly helped to save thousands of dollars in taxes. But in actual fact, they still owe the IRS the full amount of their taxes, plus interests and penalties.
So if you are in a bind over your taxes, call us at (813) 229 7100 for a free consultation.
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