Criminal prosecutions by the Internal Revenue Service appear to be timed to coincide with tax season, according to a new analysis.
The analysis, by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, found that April consistently has the greatest number of prosecutions as a result of IRS criminal investigations, two-thirds or more higher than the number seen in January.
For all of fiscal year 2014, there were 1,689 IRS prosecutions, a decline of 16 percent from the prior fiscal year.
Among U.S. federal judicial districts, the Middle District of Alabama (Montgomery) saw the highest per capita rate of IRS prosecutions, with 27 per million people as compared with 5.4 prosecutions per million nationally in FY 2014. Second was the Southern District of Alabama (Mobile) with 26 per million, followed by the Southern District of Mississippi with 19 per million.
The IRS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The most frequent criminal charge was fraud and false statements, followed in second place by conspiracy to defraud the government, followed in third place by attempt to evade or defeat tax.
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