In a recent U.S. Tax Court case, taxpayers suffered a double loss. The taxpayers, consisting of four couples, had purchased welfare benefit plans marketed by Benistar 419 Plan Services. Under the plan, Benistar provided preretirement life insurance to select employees of companies enrolled in the plan. Small employers like the plans because they allow pretax […]
Three Types of Welfare Benefit Plan Frauds
[Post updated May 2021] When this post was first written in 2011, welfare benefit plans were a hot topic with the IRS. Huge penalties – up to $200,000 per year, criminal investigations, civil suits and many, many scams. If getting huge fines from the IRS wasn’t enough, several promoters of these plans managed to get […]