I’ve blogged before on President Obama’s plan to raise income taxes on Americans making more than $250,000 a year.
But something that has not been in the spotlight quite as much is Obama’s proposal to raise the cap on the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). FICA is a tax that funds Social Security and Medicare.
Brian Compton, my associate and the President of Tax Resolution Services, was recently interviewed by Craig Clough
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Question: Things aren’t going well. I maxed out my credit cards to be able to give my kids the type of Christmas they’re used to having. All the while, I felt dread. That’s because I owe a huge amount to the IRS — about the same amount I expect to make in total income in 2009. What can I do?
Answer:  First of all, don’t panic. Put that dread to the
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You read in newspapers about big-name celebrities caught violating U.S. tax law. But beware: You’re at risk too.
By Michael Rozbruch
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Celebrity lands in tax trouble.
That story always finds a way into your newspaper or your favorite news website.
After all, who hasn’t read about Brazilian race-car driver and “Dancing with the Stars” winner Helio Castroneves?
The 33-year-old faces trial in Miami on charges he failed to report $5.5 million in income from 1999
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I was recently interviewed by  Martin Vaughan from Dow Jones News for an article he was writing about the new circumstances under which the IRS would consider Offer in Compromise settlements that it would otherwise have rejected because of a home equity issue.
Under the Offer in Compromise program, the tax collector may settle with a taxpayer for less than the full amount of taxes owed. Under previous guidelines, the IRS
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President-elect Barack Obama called Timothy Geithner’s tax problems an “embarrassment,” but also referred to the situation as an “innocent mistake.” So don’t expect Geithner’s $34,000 tax bill to disqualify him from the new administration’s Treasury Secretary appointment.
According to reports, Geithner failed to pay self-employment taxes for money he earned from 2001 to 2004 while working for the International Monetary Fund.
News reports state that the amount that Geithner paid was $16,000
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Darrell Forest May, 58, of Phoenix, was sentenced to five years of probation and fined $20,000 after pleading guilty to tax evasion. From July 2000 to December 2005, May attempted to evade the payment of income taxes for tax years 1998, 1999 and 2000. To conceal his income and evade payment of taxes, among other ways, he filed false W-4 forms in which he claimed “exempt” status and did not
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In 2008, the IRS collected $56.4 billion - $7.7 billion more than in 2006. This was only slightly down from 2007’s record year of $59.2 Billion.
The audit rate is 100% higher today than in 2000!  Nearly 1.4 million Americans were audited in 2008, just over 1% of all returns filed.  Correspondence/ mail audits, otherwise known as CP-2000 letter audits are up nearly 34% from 2000 levels.
The 2008 collection enforcement numbers
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An international businessman will spend the next year and a half behind bars after failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in income.
Thomas Rikki Farr, 66, of Scottsdale, Ariz., was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for willfully filing a false income tax return. Farr will also be placed on one year of supervised release upon his release from federal custody.
When Farr pleaded guilty in June 2008, he
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The IRS issued a statement saying that they are taking steps to help financially distressed taxpayers. Depending on the circumstances, taxpayers in hardship situations may be able to adjust payments for back taxes, avoid defaulting on payment agreements or possibly defer collection action.
In other words, for taxpayers who have lost their job, seen a significant decline in their income, been forced to close down their business - the IRS “may”
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A former Wayne, N.J., resident who operated a mortgage and real estate business pleaded guilty to tax evasion, admitting he failed to report to the IRS nearly $836,500 of income — a portion of which represented proceeds from fraudulent mortgage transactions.
Russell Mainardi, 51, of Hyland Mills, N.Y., admitted he permitted mortgage loans to be made to borrowers based on false information submitted to the banks. He then directed commissions and
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According to a recent article in the New York Times titled For Victims of Schemes, the I.R.S. Can Be Flexible, a bailout for Madoff victims would cost federal, state and local governments as much as $20 billion.
While a spokesman for the Internal Revenue Service declined to comment on the Madoff case, there is still speculation in the media and amongst tax professionals as to whether investors will be able to
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In her recent report to Congress, National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson urged the Internal Revenue Service to take steps to ease the tax burden on Americans hit by the recession and consider the economic circumstances of a taxpayer before initiating “enforcement actions.”
As I’ve said before, the IRS will continue to aggressively pursue tax collection compliance, despite the prevailing harsh economy. The IRS is under increasing pressure to track down the
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A Las Vegas lawyer who previously pleaded guilty to tax evasion and willfully failed to file federal income tax returns or pay any taxes for a five-year period was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison.
Mark A. Lobello was indicted by the federal grand Jury in November 2006. According to court records, Lobello handled business disputes, personal injury lawsuits and divorce matters. From 1997 and 2001, Lobello earned more than
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Three men were convicted following a ten-week jury trial in Manhattan that addressed the design, marketing and implementation of tax shelters.
John Larson, 57, a former senior manager at KPMG, and Robert Pfaff, 58, a former partner at KPMG, were the founders of Presidio Advisory Services, which purported to be an “investment advisor” for various tax shelter products. R.J. Ruble, 63, was a partner at the law firm of Brown &
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For solving IRS tax problems, the general time line from submission to settlement is about 9-12 months. Longer if your case goes to Appeals. 65% of our cases are settled at the Appellate level.
Fees are usually fixed - based on the particular services to be rendered to permanently solve the taxpayer’s IRS problems for the lowest amount allowed under law. Most “run of the mill” Offers in Compromise are about
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