IRS Auditor pleads guilty to fraud on own tax return

April 1, 7:10 AMLaw Enforcement ExaminerJim Kouri

A tax auditor with the Internal Revenue Service has agreed to plead guilty on Monday to a federal tax fraud charge for filing a personal income tax return that claimed he suffered a loss in a real estate transaction, when in fact he earned a large profit.

In a plea agreement filed in United States District Court in Santa Ana, Jim H. Liu, 43, agreed to plead guilty to subscribing to a false tax return, a charge that carries a penalty of up to three years in federal prison.

Liu is employed by the IRS as a revenue agent and conducts audits of taxpayers.

In the plea agreement, Liu admits that he filed a false tax return for the 2002 tax year that improperly claimed a loss on his sale of a property in Pomona.

According to the plea agreement, Liu sold the property in question for a profit of more than $48,000, but he claimed that he had suffered a loss of more than $4,200.

The tax loss to the government, as a result of Liu’s filing of the false tax for 2002 was approximately $14,642.88, according to the plea agreement.

The case against Liu was previously assigned to United States District Judge David O. Carter. A change of plea hearing in the case has not yet been scheduled.

The investigation of Liu was conducted by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.