The IRS Criminal Investigation 2018 Annual Report

The Internal Revenue released its annual report of criminal enforcement actions taken in the fiscal year 2018.

A major focus of Criminal Investigation (CI) was traditional tax cases, including international tax enforcement, employment tax, refund fraud and tax-related identity theft.

CI initiated 2,886 cases in 2018, with traditional tax cases accounting for 73% of the total. CI is the only federal law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over federal tax crimes. CI achieved a conviction rate of 91.7% in fiscal 2018.

In 2018, CI established a new international tax and financial crime group. This group works to identify, investigate and recommend prosecution of international offshore tax evasion schemes, looking at U.S. citizen account holders who move their money offshore to avoid detection, and at foreign banks and financial institutions that facilitate U.S. citizens to hide their money offshore.

Source: IRS website