Criminal tax cases are won early — usually before charges are ever filed. If IRS Criminal Investigation has contacted you, or a civil audit has started to feel like something else, the time to get counsel between you and the government is now. Brotman Law defends criminal tax matters across California and coordinates with the IRS, the FTB, and the Department of Justice Tax Division.
By Sam Brotman, JD, LLM, MBA · Last updated August 2026
How do I know if I am under criminal investigation?
The clearest signals: two special agents appear unannounced, your bank tells you records were summonsed, or your civil audit suddenly goes quiet. IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) special agents work in pairs, identify themselves as such, and read a version of your rights — if that has happened, say nothing beyond identifying yourself and call counsel the same day. The quieter signal is the eggshell audit: a civil exam sitting on top of facts that could support a referral. The auditor’s silence about fraud does not mean fraud is off the table; agents are trained not to tip a referral.
What the government has to prove
Willfulness — a voluntary, intentional violation of a known legal duty — is the element that decides these cases. Tax evasion under IRC § 7201 requires an affirmative act of evasion plus a tax due; filing a false return under § 7206(1) requires a statement you did not believe true when you signed; failure to file under § 7203 is a misdemeanor but stacks by year. Sloppy records, aggressive positions, and honest mistakes are not crimes — and keeping the government’s proof confined to that territory is the core of the defense.
Can a civil audit turn criminal?
Yes — and the transition is invisible from the taxpayer’s side. A revenue agent who develops firm indications of fraud is required to suspend the exam and refer it to CI, without telling you. That is why representation during an eggshell audit is different from ordinary audit work: every document produced and every interview answer is evaluated against the referral risk first. The privilege that matters here is attorney-client — your accountant’s workpapers and memory are subpoenaable; conversations with counsel are not, and accountants we engage under a Kovel arrangement come inside that privilege.
What are the actual outcomes?
Most matters we handle end without charges — resolved civilly, declined, or corrected through a disclosure before the government ever opened a file. For conduct not yet on the IRS’s radar, a voluntary disclosure through the IRS’s practice can take prosecution off the table when done correctly and on time — the timing rules are strict, and eligibility ends the moment an investigation starts. When charges are realistic, early engagement with the prosecutors shapes what gets charged, and sentencing in tax cases turns heavily on the calculated tax loss — a number that is itself defensible.
What to do in the next 48 hours
Do not talk to the agents, do not amend anything, do not fire your accountant loudly, and do not clean up files. Each of those moves has made cases worse. Preserve everything exactly as it is, write down what was said in any contact while it is fresh, and get counsel engaged before any response deadline runs. Obstruction conduct after contact is often easier to prosecute than the tax conduct itself.
Tell us what is going on
Short version is fine. We read every one of these, and you will hear back from a person.