FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Court Permanently Bars Five Defendants From Promoting Charitable Remainder Annuity Trust Tax Scheme
Court Also Orders Multiple Parties to Disgorge $1.5 Million in Alleged Ill-Gotten Gains
On May 23, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri permanently barred Rhonda Eickhoff from organizing, promoting, selling or marketing a tax scheme involving the use of charitable remainder annuity trusts (CRATs).
On May 17, the court likewise permanently barred John Eickhoff Jr. and Hoffman Associates LLC from organizing, promoting, selling or marketing a tax scheme involving the use of CRATs. In addition, the court ordered Hoffman Associates LLC, the company allegedly used to promote the scheme, to disgorge $1.1 million and John Eickhoff Jr. to disgorge $400,000. The court previously entered injunctions against defendants John William Gray II and Damon Thomas Eisma stemming from their roles in this scheme. Each defendant agreed to the court orders. The case against two additional defendants for their roles in this scheme remains pending.
According to the United States’ amended complaint, defendants falsely claimed that customers following their CRAT scheme could sell property in a way that eliminated the federal income tax on the gain generated from the sale. The government alleged each defendant took part in one or more of the following steps involved in the scheme: (1) recruiting customers to contribute property to a CRAT (usually real property that has gained value over time); (2) unlawfully inflating (stepping-up) the cost basis in the property on tax documents; (3) selling the property and using the proceeds to purchase an annuity; and (4) falsely reporting the annuity payments received by the customers as tax-free distributions from the CRAT. The government alleged that the defendants promoted, sold, or established at least 70 CRATs, resulting in an estimated $40 million of unreported taxable income.
Abusive arrangements using Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts remain a concern of the IRS, which recently warned taxpayers about the misuse of this trust arrangement as part of the IRS’s Dirty Dozen series.
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Deputy Assistant Attorney General David A. Hubbert of the Justice Department’s Tax Division made the announcement.
Taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant against unscrupulous tax preparers. The IRS offers tips on how to accurately file returns and how to choose a tax return preparer, as well as steps taxpayers can take to get a jumpstart on filing. The IRS also offers 10 tips to avoid tax season fraud and ways to safeguard their personal information. Taxpayers seeking assistance can access the IRS’s free directory of federal tax preparers.
In the past decade, the Justice Department's Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers and promoters. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department’s website. An alphabetical listing of persons enjoined from preparing returns and promoting tax schemes can be found on this page. If you believe that one of the enjoined persons or businesses may be violating an injunction, please contact the Tax Division with details.
Topic(s): TaxComponent(s): Tax DivisionPress Release Number: 23-616
Updated May 31, 2023Original Article
