We have posted several articles on captive insurance fraud and each one has prompted a certain amount of controversy. That’s good because it get people thinking. Unfortunately, as fraud recovery lawyers, we see cases where investors lost battles with the IRS over captive insurance programs. Even worse, we often see captive insurance programs that are […]
IRS Cracks Down On Captive Insurance Arrangements
Accountants and tax lawyers are seeing a rise in IRS audits directed at companies using captive insurance arrangements. While big businesses have long used captives as a way of managing risk, IRS efforts appear to be directed at smaller companies that rely on section 831(b) of the tax code. (In July we reported on the […]
Cell Captive Insurance – Legit Insurance Tool or Abusive Tax Shelter
Just a few years ago, captive insurance companies were a hot news item in the arcane world of abusive tax shelters. Sleazy promoters were signing up small businesses in droves. If you created a cell captive as a property and casualty loss management tool, it’s probably legitimate. If you “bought” an off the shelf captive […]
Captive Insurance Scams
by Brian Mahany It didn’t take long. On July 18th we wrote about the new IRS audit push on captive insurance companies. Unless very carefully crafted, the IRS considers most to be abusive tax shelters. This means big penalties if you misuse one to avoid taxes. Unfortunately, the captive insurance market has attracted its fair […]