By Anna Scott Farrell

A restaurant owner who committed tax crimes and illegally collected more than $1.7 million in pandemic relief money was sentenced to more than three years in prison by a California federal judge, a fraction of the sentence urged by prosecutors who pointed to millions in cash hidden in his bedroom.

By Anna Scott Farrell

An Arizona federal judge rejected a request by two tax assistance companies to stop the IRS from issuing batch denials of thousands of pandemic-era worker credit claims, saying the companies, which take a cut of the refunded credits as fees, lack the legally required interest in their clients' refunds.

By Anna Scott Farrell

The Internal Revenue Service owes a mortgage lender $5 million in refunds for worker tax credits after it had to suspend operations during the pandemic, the lender told a California federal court, saying the agency denied one of its claims for credits without conducting an audit.

By Asha Glover

The Internal Revenue Service owes an Alabama company that does environmental cleanup work a $3.1 million tax refund, the company told a federal district court, arguing that one of its employee retention tax credit claims was wrongfully denied.

By Anna Scott Farrell

A payroll provider for a maintenance company never passed along interest payments from the Internal Revenue Service related to its clients' pandemic-era relief claims, the company alleged in a proposed class action filed in Washington federal court.

By Kat Lucero

A consumer-protection boutique law firm accused the IRS of illegally enforcing payroll taxes while delaying the processing of pandemic-era employee retention tax credits, which the firm claimed would have helped with compliance, according to a complaint in Connecticut federal court.