Testimony continues in case against Renaissance founder
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KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) -- A former employee of a now-defunct tax advice company says the founder of the Topeka-based business planned to make money and leave before the Internal Revenue Service "hit."
As part of a plea agreement, tax specialist Thomas Steelman testified Tuesday in the trial of Michael Craig Cooper. The 53-year-old Cooper ran Renaissance, The Tax People, until 2001, when authorities deemed the business an illegal pyramid scheme and shut it down.
Cooper faces 148 federal counts of fraud and money laundering.
Steelman told federal jurors in Kansas City, Kan., that Cooper told him there would be no need to develop an auditing program because he planned to make his money in three or years and be gone.
The business sold a system for home-based business owners.
Renaissance, the Tax People criminal trial
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Renaissance, the Tax People criminal trial
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Customers testify in fraud case
By Steve Fry
The Capital-Journal
Published Thursday, January 24, 2008
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Rick Hollinger didn't make a net profit during the two years he sold the Renaissance tax-relief system and recruited salespeople, he told a federal court jury Wednesday.
But he did get a tax refund of almost $2,000 one year, wrote off a trip to Cancun, Mexico, as a business expense and survived an audit by the Internal Revenue Service, Hollinger testified during the sixth day of trial for Michael Cooper, the founder and former president and chief executive officer of Renaissance, the Tax People, a Topeka-based firm.
Hollinger, one of four Renaissance customers to testify Wednesday, said he bought the tax-reduction system in 1998, joining Renaissance "to maximize your (tax) deductions as much as possible and to keep as much of your salary as possible."
In a tax return for his 1998 earnings prepared by Renaissance tax specialist Thomas Steelman Sr., Hollinger got a refund of $1,908 even though he had a net loss of $6,454 for work as a Renaissance independent marketing associate, he testified. He sold only two tax-reduction programs and conducted two business meetings, but he bought $2,438 in supplies for his home business.
His 1999 tax return showed gross receipts of $267, but the business expenses included "world travel fees" of $7,800 when he bought a time share in a Cancun residence, $2,038 in wages when he hired his wife and stepdaughter to work at his home-based business, and $4,205 in car and truck expenses for mileage driven to and from Renaissance-related meetings, Hollinger said. What was to have been a personal trip to the Cancun time share residence became a $985 write-off when he sold a tax-reduction program to a customer while in Mexico, he said.
"I turned a personal trip into a business trip," Hollinger said.
But in 1999, he owed the IRS $823 in taxes. In 2001, Hollinger said three IRS agents conducted an audit for two hours, he showed them his receipts, and he emerged without owing anything.
Bill Banks, another IMA, wasn't so fortunate with his tax return. To boost his take-home pay, Banks followed Renaissance's advice to increase the number of exemptions claimed on his W-4 form at work from one to eight. That made a "substantial difference" in his paycheck every two weeks, boosting it by $300, Banks said. But he owed $2,042 to the IRS when he filed his 1999 tax return, Banks said.
Cooper, 53, who faces 148 federal counts, is charged with conspiring to cheat the IRS and Renaissance customers.
By Steve Fry
The Capital-Journal
Published Thursday, January 24, 2008
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Rick Hollinger didn't make a net profit during the two years he sold the Renaissance tax-relief system and recruited salespeople, he told a federal court jury Wednesday.
But he did get a tax refund of almost $2,000 one year, wrote off a trip to Cancun, Mexico, as a business expense and survived an audit by the Internal Revenue Service, Hollinger testified during the sixth day of trial for Michael Cooper, the founder and former president and chief executive officer of Renaissance, the Tax People, a Topeka-based firm.
Hollinger, one of four Renaissance customers to testify Wednesday, said he bought the tax-reduction system in 1998, joining Renaissance "to maximize your (tax) deductions as much as possible and to keep as much of your salary as possible."
In a tax return for his 1998 earnings prepared by Renaissance tax specialist Thomas Steelman Sr., Hollinger got a refund of $1,908 even though he had a net loss of $6,454 for work as a Renaissance independent marketing associate, he testified. He sold only two tax-reduction programs and conducted two business meetings, but he bought $2,438 in supplies for his home business.
His 1999 tax return showed gross receipts of $267, but the business expenses included "world travel fees" of $7,800 when he bought a time share in a Cancun residence, $2,038 in wages when he hired his wife and stepdaughter to work at his home-based business, and $4,205 in car and truck expenses for mileage driven to and from Renaissance-related meetings, Hollinger said. What was to have been a personal trip to the Cancun time share residence became a $985 write-off when he sold a tax-reduction program to a customer while in Mexico, he said.
"I turned a personal trip into a business trip," Hollinger said.
But in 1999, he owed the IRS $823 in taxes. In 2001, Hollinger said three IRS agents conducted an audit for two hours, he showed them his receipts, and he emerged without owing anything.
Bill Banks, another IMA, wasn't so fortunate with his tax return. To boost his take-home pay, Banks followed Renaissance's advice to increase the number of exemptions claimed on his W-4 form at work from one to eight. That made a "substantial difference" in his paycheck every two weeks, boosting it by $300, Banks said. But he owed $2,042 to the IRS when he filed his 1999 tax return, Banks said.
Cooper, 53, who faces 148 federal counts, is charged with conspiring to cheat the IRS and Renaissance customers.
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