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Description: The Employee Retention Tax Credit (“ERC”), passed as part of the CARES Act, has provided vital relief to countless struggling businesses affected by the pandemic. But the ERC program also has been plagued by fraud. Its implementation has spawned a cottage industry of promoters advertising easy-to-obtain and lucrative payroll tax credits to business owners whom they then trick or cajole into claiming up to hundreds of thousands in credits to which they are not entitled, resulting in billions of losses to the government. The IRS is not taking this lying down. This March, the IRS singled out ERC fraud in its 2023 “Dirty Dozen” list of abusive transactions. IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel has signaled that civil and criminal enforcement of ERC fraud is one of its top priorities. And the IRS is encouraging individuals to report illicit or abusive ERC activities to the IRS Lead Development Center in the Office of Promoter Investigations. On top of this, the IRS recently issued guidance to practitioners, which doubled as a warning, on proceeding with caution when representing clients seeking to claim ERC credits.
This program will educate participants on the ERC program, explain the ways in which it has been abused, detail the government’s response to the problem, and educate practitioners on how best to protect their clients and themselves from ending up in the IRS’s crosshairs as part of its ERC fraud enforcement.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Christopher M. Ferguson is an experienced litigator who concentrates his practice on white-collar criminal defense as well as civil and criminal tax controversies and other regulatory enforcement matters. Mr. Ferguson also has extensive experience handling complex civil litigation.
Mr. Ferguson represents clients in both federal and state courts, as well as before governmental agencies and other regulatory bodies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission, FINRA, the New York Attorney General’s Office, the U.S. Department of Labor, the New York City Department of Investigations and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. He has defended clients in investigations and prosecutions involving a variety of federal and state statutes, including the Internal Revenue Code, the Bank Secrecy Act, the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Davis-Bacon Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal mail, wire and bank fraud statutes, the federal securities laws, the New York City procurement rules and the New York Penal Code and New York Tax Code.
In his civil practice, Mr. Ferguson has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of complex commercial matters, including wage and hour class actions, tax shelter litigations, government procurement matters and commercial litigations involving breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, civil fraud, civil RICO, civil forfeiture and similar claims.
Mr. Ferguson also conducts internal investigations for institutional clients whose officers and/or employees have been suspected or accused of wrongdoing.
Mr. Ferguson received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Boston College and his J.D. from New York University School of Law. Prior to joining Kostelanetz & Fink, LLP, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jay C. Waldman of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and was associated with the law firm of Dewey Ballantine, LLP, where he practiced in the areas of complex commercial, antitrust, and bankruptcy litigation.
Mr. Ferguson is the former Secretary of the Criminal Law Committee of the Bar Association of the City of New York and has published and spoken in the areas of white collar criminal and civil and criminal tax controversies.
 | | Practice Areas: | | Business Organizations & Contracts, Employment Law, Tax Law | | | Online Media Type: | | Video | | | Production Date: | | 04/27/2023 | | | Level: | | Intermediate | | | Category: | | Standard | | | Duration: | | 1 Hours, 1 Minutes | | | Online Format: | | On Demand | | | Course Type: | | Public |
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| | • | Christopher M. Ferguson - Kostelanetz & Fink, LLP |
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