I'm Darrin Mish. For 32 years I've practiced federal tax litigation \u2014 routine audits, Tax Court cases, and everything in between. If you're facing an IRS issue, here's what you need to know first.<\/p>\n
Former taxman first got caught being a corrupt revenue agent. Now, he\u2019s spending jail time for trying to cheat the same IRS that once gave him the authority to audit taxpayers.<\/a> Beware: If they caught him, they can catch you.<\/em><\/p>\n Cheating on your taxes? Maybe thinking about it?<\/p>\n Let the tale of former taxman Ronald C. Heidel be a lesson to you.<\/p>\n In the mid-\u201970s, Heidel went to work for the Internal Revenue Service. He was the dreaded auditor, the G-man who showed up at your door with bad news: You\u2019ve been audited.<\/p>\n But as it turned out, Heidel wasn\u2019t the average auditor.<\/p>\n According to court records, Heidel was a double IRS agent, so to speak.<\/p>\n In 1983, he was convicted on two charges of accepting monetary compensation from a company during his tenure as an IRS agent and filing a false corporate tax return<\/a> on behalf of a company he had audited during his service with the IRS.<\/p>\n So what does a disgraced IRS agent<\/a> do?<\/p>\n Buy a strip club, of course.<\/p>\n In March 1999, Heidel purchased the Gentlemen\u2019s Gold Club, a restaurant and bar in Baltimore County that also featured entertainment by exotic dancers.<\/p>\n That\u2019s when Heidel began to play fast and loose with the books \u2013 and American tax dollars.<\/p>\n Federal prosecutors alleged Heidel made false statements to the government on his 2001 tax return<\/a>, declaring significantly less income than he actually received.<\/p>\n And how did Heidel allegedly hide the income? With cash.<\/p>\n Unlike other business, strip clubs operates almost entirely as cash enterprises. Heidel\u2019s was no exception.<\/p>\n From May 3, 1999, and Dec. 27, 2001, Heidel deposited $1.467 million in cash derived in part from the operations of the club into various personal bank accounts<\/a> rather than the company\u2019s bank accounts. Many of these cash deposits were between $7,000 and $9,000, just below the $10,000 limit required to alert the IRS. And so since the IRS didn\u2019t officially know about the cash deposits, Heidel didn\u2019t volunteer the information on his and his wife\u2019s joint tax return.<\/p>\n But the law finally caught up with Heidel, a 60-year-old who now lives in Sanibel, Fla., on the Sunshine State\u2019s Gulf Coast.<\/p>\n He was sentenced to 18 months in prison<\/a> to be followed by one year of supervised release. Heidel was also fined $30,000 and ordered to pay $135,236 in restitution to the IRS<\/a>.<\/p>\n