The Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation body is accountable for tax crime investigation regarding alleged defilements of the Internal Revenue Code, Bank Act as well as other money laundering statutes. Based on the findings of the investigations, it is referred to the Department of Justice for the recommended prosecution.

Sources of Tax Crime Investigation for the IRS CID or special agents

The criminal investigation can be started from the information found from the IRS when a revenue auditor or revenue officer senses that there is a possible fraud. Information is further frequently acquired from the public together with the ongoing inquiries that are proceeding by other law enforcement agencies or the United States Attorney’s offices across the country.

Preliminary Analysis and Investigation endorsements

The CID or the special agents examine information to decide whether criminal tax fraud or another financial crime has taken place. Relevant information is evaluated. The preliminary procedure is referred as the primary investigation. The CID reviews the preliminary information and makes the decision to approve or reject further buildup of the information. If the supervisor makes an approval, it is obtained from the head office, the special agent that is responsible to initiate a subject criminal examination. At this stage, two lawyers from the CID have studied the primary inquiry material and reached a decision if there is sufficient evidence to start a subject criminal investigation.

Carrying out the Criminal Investigation

The moment an investigation is opened, the CID obtains the facts and evidence needed to prove the elements of criminal activity. Different investigative techniques are applied to get the evidence; this includes interviews done by the third party observers, carrying out surveillance, search warrants, subpoenaing bank records and reviewing financial data.

The special agent works hand in hand with the IRS Chief Counsel of the Criminal Tax Attorneys during the criminal investigation. The following process ensures that all legal aspects of the investigation and prosecution recommendation are well addressed.

Prosecution recommendation from the CID

When all evidence has been gathered and analyzed, the special agent in coordination with his administrator either make a resolve that evidence does fails to confirm criminal activity, in which the investigation is superseded, or the evidence is made sufficient to support the recommendation of trial in which case the representative continues with the arrangement of written report that details the findings of defilement of the law and endorsing prosecution. The report is called special agent report, and it is normally reviewed by a lot of officials including:

• Supervisory special agent who is the leader

• Criminal investigation quality review team

• CI special agent

• CI assistant special agent in charge.

If the CI makes a decision that the tax crime investigation is genuine and requires to be legally prosecuted, a trial recommendation is sent to:

• The Department of Justice, Tax Division

• The United States Attorney for all other investigations.

Every level of review may display that indication does not validate criminal charges, and the investigation need not be prosecuted.

Prosecution

In case the Justice Department of the United States accepts the examination for trial, the IRS special agent will be requested by the prosecutors to help in preparation for the trial. However, once the special agent report is taken to the prosecution, the investigation is managed by the prosecutors.

Conviction

This is the major or target objective of an IRS Criminal Enquiry prosecution endorsement is to have a conviction plea. About 3,000 tax criminal prosecutions per year offer restrictive effect and indications to the compliant taxpayers that fraud shall not be tolerated. The IRS is a body that ensures tax related crime is investigated and proper penalties taken.