IRS Criminal Investigation Releases Annual Report

The IRS-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) has released its Fiscal Year 2021 Annual Report. The report details statistics, important partnerships and significant criminal enforcement actions from IRS-CI, the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, for the past fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, 2020 and ended Sept. 30, 2021. Over 2,500 criminal investigations, the identification of more than $10 billion from tax fraud and financial crimes, and a nearly 90% conviction rate are just a few highlights of the report.

In fiscal year 2021, IRS-CI built upon its existing network of U.S. field offices and international attachés to combat financial crimes across the globe. The agency’s alliance with the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) helped strengthen public-private partnerships with financial institutions and the Fin-Tech industry to deter and identify criminal activity. Additionally, IRS-CI established its first cyber attaché in The Hague, Netherlands, to proactively support cyber investigative needs in coordination with Europol. Numerous IRS-CI investigations resulted in individuals being sentenced for fraudulently obtaining small business relief loans under the CARES Act. Moreover, the report includes additional case examples for each field office an overview of IRS-CI’s international footprint, details about the specialized services provided by IRS-CI and investigative statistics, broken down by discipline, for fiscal year 2021.