Happy Friday! It’s time for another weekly review of tax relief news before the long Labor Day weekend.
Tax News Announcement
The IRS website is new and improved! Check it out at irs.gov! According to an article in Federal Computer Week titled IRS spending $320M on website improvements, the multi-million dollar new website provides tax help by improving user experience.  Individuals, business people and tax practitioners will have access to secure portals
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Given the deep and prolonged recession, many are finding it impossible to make ends meet including taxpayers with an IRS tax settlement wanting to renegotiate their payments with the IRS. In over 14 years of working with tax resolution cases, I’m currently seeing taxpayers in record numbers facing this challenge. Often their original tax settlement was based on income and finances that have since disappeared leaving them with a payment
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An electrician in Texas pleaded guilty to federal tax offenses that alleged he did not report $1.6 million in income.
Calvin Gary Walker, 51, of Beaumont, Tex., came to the attention of IRS investigators as a result of an FBI inquiry of overbilling and submission of altered documents to the Beaumont Independent School District.
Those records revealed that Walker failed to report as income on his 2009 tax return a check from
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With summer still in the air, the IRS wants us to start thinking about our 2012 taxes. In recent post for the Tax Matters blog, I highlighted recent IRS Summertime Tax Help Tips that aim to let taxpayers know it’s not too late to change 2012 tax withholdings to avoid the following:

Withholding too much and receiving a big tax refund
Withholding too little and receiving  a high tax bill

Most people have
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A Cleveland woman was sentenced to six months in prison and six months of home confinement for aiding and assisting in the preparation of 36 false income tax returns after pleading guilty to the charges.
Carol A. Wright, 51, prepared 34 returns for nine clients reporting fictitious or falsely inflated amounts of business income and claiming refunds that were false in their entirety or falsely inflated. Each return contained a Schedule
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A former chief of staff to a member of the Newark (N.J.) Municipal Council received six months in prison and six months of home confinement for evading income taxes.
Richard Allen Whitten, 50, of Newark, pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion for his fraudulent W-4 form and subsequent failure to file a federal tax return. Whitten claimed phony exemptions and failed to file an individual income tax return.
In addition
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Let’s recap recent IRS tax relief stories that made news headlines:
The IRS Offer in Compromise Program can help taxpayers get their financial footing back
Our post this week highlighted the fact that many Americans are struggling to pay their bills much less their tax debt. However, no matter bleak the tax situation, taxpayers need to know they have options beginning with consulting a qualified tax professional. Our tax expert analyzes previous
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Question: I’m deep in a hole. My business failed after the economy collapse, and I owe a bundle in taxes. I’m not even sure exactly how much. But I know I can’t pay it. What can I do?

Answer: I’m very sorry to hear about your predicament, but if it’s any comfort, please know that you are not alone. There are many, many U.S. consumers in your situation — even
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An article in Accounting Today titled Ex-IRS Agent Pleads Guilty to Ordering Hit Job on Tax Clients reports on a former IRS inspector/tax preparer who is facing criminal prosecution for masterminding a tax fraud case that involved (among other things) money laundering, filing false returns and attempted murder.
According to the article, former IRS revenue agent and tax preparer Stephen Martinez pleaded guilty on August 10 to criminal charges that he
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Michael R. Tucker, 46, of Canton, Ohio, was sentenced to 15 months in prison after pleading guilty to willful failure to pay withheld federal income taxes.  From 2004 through 2008, Tucker operated Computology and was required to pay federal income taxes that the business withheld from its employees, but he intentionally did not pay $263,188.23 from 10 quarters of withholdings from December 2005 through March 2008.

It’s one thing to call yourself a “tax resolution specialist” but it’s another to back up that designation with credentials. At Tax Resolution Services, Co., (TRS), we require that our all tax resolution experts meet the educational, experience, and examination requirements prescribed by the American Society of Tax Problem Solvers (ASTPS) making them a Certified Tax Resolution Specialist (CTRS). Becoming a certified tax resolution specialist is not easy, but rewarding
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IRS agents arrested a New Jersey lawyer on charges that he evaded federal income taxes and failed to pay payroll taxes for his law firm employee from 2006 through 2009.
Lee Gottesman, 56, of Toms River, N.J., was indicted on four counts of personal income tax evasion and 15 counts of willful failure to pay payroll taxes.
During the tax years covered by the indictment, Gottesman allegedly earned more than $440,000 in
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Hello and Happy Friday! This was a busy week that covered  a range of IRS tax relief topics.  Let’s round them up:

Offshore Tax issues: Swiss Bank UBS filed a lawsuit this week against one if it’s former billionaire clients, Igor Olenicoff for damages the bank incurred defending the 2008 suit Olenicoff filed against them. Janet Novack’s article @Forbes titled UBS Sues Billionaire Olenicoff in Offshore Tax Cheating Case explains this
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A Pennsylvania woman pleaded guilty to filing a false tax return in connection with her husband’s lawn care business.
Jennifer Falbo falsely reported that gross receipts in 2003 from the operation of Pittsburgh Lawn Care, a business operated by her husband Michael Falbo since the late 1990s, were $138,401 when the gross receipts from the operation of the business were in fact nearly three times more — $314,073. Michael Falbo pleaded
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A recent chapter of the Swiss Banks vs. the IRS saga features a plot twist; large Swiss bank UBS sues a wealthy American client.
UBS, Switzerland’s largest bank filed a lawsuit last week suing their former client, billionaire real estate developer, Igor Olenicoff for damages from a 2008 federal lawsuit he filed against the them. Janet Novack of Forbes’ article UBS Sues Billionaire Olenicoff in Offshore Tax Cheating Case explains this
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