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Zachary Bassett

Defendant

ERC
Type
Person
Role
Defendant
Programs
ERC
Updated

The profile

A co-founder of COS Accounting & Tax (1099 Tax Pros) in Provo, Utah, indicted in February 2023 with fellow co-founder Mason Warr and the firm over more than 1,000 filings claiming over $11 million in COVID employment tax credits for gig workers. A federal jury acquitted all three on all 25 counts in September 2024, the only acquittal in the Justice Department's Employee Retention Credit case releases.

Identity and role

Zachary Bassett, 39 at the verdict, of Provo, Utah, was co-founder, chief financial officer and senior tax manager of COS Accounting & Tax LLC, which did business as 1099 Tax Pros, according to the indictment. Mason Warr, 37, of Vineyard, was its co-founder and chief executive. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Utah announced the charges on February 3, 2023 in a release still titled "Utah County Residents and an Accounting Business Charged in $11 Million COVID-Related Tax Fraud Scheme."

The case and pandemic-relief role

The Employee Retention Credit (ERC) and the sick and family leave credits went to employers; self-employed people could not claim the ERC. The indictment alleged that COS Accounting "actively solicited independent contractors involved in door-to-door sales, rideshare drivers, sole proprietors, and other Form 1099 workers to convert their 'businesses' into LLCs, taxed as an S Corporation," and advertised that the structure would let them qualify for the credits. From about April 2020 through August 2021, it alleged, the firm's staff prepared more than 1,000 Forms 7200 and 941 claiming more than $11,000,000 in ERC and leave credits for clients.

The charges were one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, 13 counts of wire fraud and 11 counts of aiding and assisting false returns, against both men and the company.

  • Acquitted: after a two-week trial before Judge Howard C. Nielson Jr. and a full day of deliberations, the jury found Bassett, Warr and the company not guilty on all 25 counts on September 25, 2024, KSL reported. The court's judgment of acquittal for Bassett was filed September 26, 2024.
  • "This case, founded on misguided assumptions, should never have been brought in the first place," said Wendy Lewis, one of Bassett's lawyers. Warr's lawyers said he had been "vindicated."
  • The verdict decided that the government had not proved the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. It did not decide whether the converted S corporations qualified for the credits.

Where they are now (2025–2026)

The Justice Department added a note to its February 2023 release that the defendants "were acquitted of the charges alleged in the indictment." The September 2024 judgment is the last court record we found.

Sources

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