The court order prohibits Scheiner and Columbia from organizing, promoting, selling or marketing tax schemes involving the use of CRATs. Scheiner is the last of six defendants that were sued in February 2022 to have agreement to a permanent injunction.

The government alleges Schreiner told customers that via use of the CRATs they could avoid reporting the sale of property to the IRS and paying federal income tax by utilizing the following steps:

*Transferring to a CRAT;                                                                                                                                                                                    *Stepping-up the cost basis in the property on tax documents;                                                                                                                           *Selling the property and using the sale proceeds to purchase an annuity;                                                                                                                   *Receiving payments from the annuity but failing to report the annuity payments as income on tax forms. 

Schreiner prepared tax forms to implement the scheme.

Bob Scott

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Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind