MASSACHUSETTS: Income Tax: Attorney Not Entitled to Abatement of Tax on Misappropriated Client Funds

Abstract

In Bott v. Massachusetts Commissioner of Revenue, the Massachusetts Appellate Tax Board ruled that the joint Massachusetts personal income tax returns of resident taxpayers, one of whom was a disbarred attorney, were filed falsely or fraudulently with a willful attempt to defeat or evade a tax because the returns failed to report as taxable income amounts that the former attorney misappropriated from client funds.