IRS Visits to Wealthy Americans Drive Malta Pension Probe
- Despite criminal agents, lawyers doubt case will spur charges
- Malta pension plans had been on IRS ‘Dirty Dozen’ scams list
The Internal Revenue Service building in Washington, DC.
Photographer: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
One morning in late June, criminal agents from the Internal Revenue Service made unannounced visits to dozens of wealthy Americans. They carried summonses and wanted to ask about pension plans in Malta on the IRS “Dirty Dozen” scams list.
But several tax lawyers said agents may have gone too far by looking for crimes in transactions that promoters promised were permissible under a 2011 US-Malta tax treaty.