In recent years, the IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) division and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have aggressively pursued tax professionals involved in fraud or other tax-related crimes. Certified tax planners, preparers, accountants, and attorneys who engage in misconduct are facing serious legal consequences. This article reviews notable prosecutions from roughly the past five years, highlighting enforcement trends and the types of fraud authorities have targeted. We then distill 10 key lessons from these cases – each supported by real-world examples and case citations – demonstrating how broad enforcement has impacted tax professionals. Finally, we conclude with a comprehensive list of dos and don'ts to help tax practitioners stay on the right side of the law and avoid the pitfalls that landed others in trouble.
What Happens If You Can’t Use All Your Clean Energy Tax Credits This Year?
Clean energy tax credits have a lot going for them. Clients buy them at a discount, apply them dollar-for-dollar against federal tax liability, and walk away paying less to the IRS. That alone makes them worth a serious look. But here’s what often gets overlooked and what makes these investments genuinely remarkable compared to almost anything else in your tax planning toolkit: the flexibility built into how and when the credits can be used. Can’t absorb the full credit this year? Carry it back up to three years and trigger refunds on taxes your client already paid. Think about that for a second. There are very few places in the tax code where you can go back in time and rewrite last year’s tax bill. This is one of them. Still have excess after the carryback? Carry it forward for up to 22 years. That’s not a typo. Two decades of runway to put those credits to work as your client’s passive income grows. And if circumstances change and the credits simply aren’t needed? An emerging secondary market means there may even be an option to sell them. No other common tax planning strategy offers this combination a guaranteed discount on purchase, dollar-for-dollar offset of tax liability, the ability to look backward and forward, and a potential exit if plans change. Understanding how each of these features works is what separates a good credit investment from a great one.
