As an average person, you don’t think about committing white collar crimes. You think that they’re crimes that only get committed by the chief executive officers (CEOs) of major corporations, accountants with access to funds or others with more to lose.
What may surprise you is that there are several white collar crimes that everyday people commit. One of these is tax evasion.
Every April, hundreds of thousands of people rush to file their taxes. Even if you do file taxes, you could still be committing the crime of tax evasion. How?
Consider a waiter or waitress. They accept cash tips, which are supposed to be reported on their taxes. In some cases, their employers don’t check how much they bring in nightly, so they simply take it home and are supposed to keep track of what they’ve made. If they don’t report this income on their taxes, they’re technically avoiding taxation on earned income.
The same can be said for most service-industry jobs that rely on tipping or cash payments. Cash is difficult to track, so it’s hard for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to prove that you haven’t paid taxes on all you owe. However, if you deposit cash into your bank account or have extravagant purchases that your bank account won’t support, questions may be asked, and you could end up facing charges.
This is just a single type of white collar crime you could be accused of. No matter what the charge is, if you face a charge from the federal government, you need to make sure you have someone on your side to assist with your defense.