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Ag law expert says agriculture remains vulnerable to scammers

An ag law expert is urging farmers and ranchers to stay vigilant against potential tax scams.

Washburn University’s Roger McEowen says a major scam facing the industry is firms pushing the employee retention credit. “They’ll promise you a certain amount of the credit. We’ll take a percentage of that and then they’re gone and you’ll never find them after that. There have been over 1,000 scammers out there.”

He says another problem is from a tax firm called Alliantgroup. “They push the research and development credit to farmers.  They target farmers. They say “we have former IRS officials.  We have a former USDA Secretary, Mike Johannes and therefore we are legitimate.’ Farmers should go to their tax counsel or legal counsel and check and see if this is fraud.”

McEowen says the IRS Criminal Investigation Division raided the group’s offices in Houston in May and the investigation continues.