Just last week, the IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) released its Annual Report for 2012 showing strong increases in enforcement actions and IRS penalties imposed on convicted tax criminals for the year ending Sept. 30, 2012. According to the IRS bulletin announcing the report’s release, the criminal investigation division investigates potential criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code and related financial crimes in a manner to foster confidence in the
[Read More]

I recently wrote a post for the Tax Matters blog about a newly released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report showing IRS budget cuts forcing the furlough of 100,000 employees therefore reducing the ability to audit taxpayers at the same rate. A Huffington Post article titled: “Offshore Tax Havens: Sequestration Damages IRS Battle with Tax Evasion“ provides additional GAO report information shining a light on how the sequester/IRS budget cuts will
[Read More]

Thanks to Frank Byrt at The Street, we learned that the IRS announced the release of their “2012 Internal Revenue Service Data Book [1],” This annual report provides an overview of agency activities, including information and statistical tables dating from October 1, 2011, to September 30, 2012. The report provides helpful data and information on the following: returns filed, taxes collected, enforcement actions, taxpayer assistance, IRS budget and workforce, and
[Read More]

For some reason the IRS did not release an updated “Dirty Dozen Tax Scam List” for 2013. This annual list of tax scams and “phishing” expeditions warns taxpayers about scams that range from tax identity theft to tax evasion. As tax day draws near, scams and schemes tend to peak as people get their tax returns ready for the April 15th deadline. I updated information from the Tax Resolution University
[Read More]

A recent Wall Street Journal article titled “Offshore Tax Probe Picks Up” shows the Feds continuing to go after Swiss banks both big and small. The government has also expanded their search for U.S. tax cheats in countries such as Israel, India, Singapore, China and elsewhere they believe citizens might be sheltering their secret accounts to evade paying taxes on them.
The article reports that on Monday Switzerland’s oldest private bank, Wegelin
[Read More]

This week was a busy one for tax relief news topics. Here are highlights of the ones we covered on the Tax Resolution University Blog:
Tax Fraud/Tax Schemes and Identity Theft
The tax season officially began on January 30. Therefore, it’s no coincidence there is already an increase in stories about tax schemes including tax fraud and identity theft. Here’s one we covered this week:

Reno, Nevada resident, Edward David Simon, 52 was
[Read More]

Even though the latest voluntary disclosure program has officially past, it is still better to come clean with unreported offshore bank accounts than to wait for the IRS to contact you. The IRS is placing more severe penalties on non-compliant offshore account holders than ever before. A recent Forbes article titled “Florida Widow Guilty + $21M Penalty for Inherited Swiss + Liechtenstein Accounts,” explains just how tough it has become.
The article’s
[Read More]

Happy Friday! Here are the top tax and tax relief topics reported in this weeks news:

Qualified Tax Resolution Representation
I wrote a post this week highlighting the need for consumers to hire qualified tax representation after reading a Forbes article titled: “Representation before IRS.” I agree with author Stephen J. Dunn assertions that not all tax professionals are qualified to handle tax controversies going before the IRS. Taxpayers needing help
[Read More]

I came across this article recently by Forbes contributor Stephen J. Dunn titled “Representation before IRS“ that started with the line “in tax controversies, who represents you can be the ballgame.” I couldn’t agree more. Dunn goes on to define tax controversy as a “contested matter [to go] before the IRS, civil or criminal, administrative or judicial.” He also strongly recommends that tax controversies not be handled by inexperienced CPA’s, Enrolled
[Read More]

Last week, the National Taxpayer Advocate, Nina E. Olson, released her 2012 annual report to Congress where she suggested the need for tax reform as the priority number one for the tax administration. Other important tax problems Olson mentions are the following:

How the IRS is not adequately funded to properly serve taxpayers and collect taxes due to chronic underfunding.
How the IRS has not been affective in assisting victims of tax-related
[Read More]

If you think the saga between the U.S. government and Swiss banks was over, think again. An article titled Feds Charges Swiss Bankers with Tax Conspiracy from Accounting Today reports on the U.S. government’s continued offensive on worldwide offshore account disclosure. The most recent target: Swiss bank, Zuercher Kantonalbank (ZKB) who the U.S. Government claims attempted to hide the accounts of American clients from the IRS.
According to the article, the
[Read More]

Happy Friday! Here are some of the tax relief news headlines we reported on this short holiday week:
IRS Audits-Back Taxes
It appears that comedian and actress Janeane Garofalo never thought she was married believing her 20 year “sham wedding” in Las Vegas to writer and producer Rob Cohen decades ago was not real. However, the IRS may not see it that way. They couple could face an IRS audit and IRS
[Read More]

Douglas Schulman, the 47th IRS Commissioner spoke on November 7th before the professional association of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) in Washington, DC.  In his speech, he talked about his last five years and where he sees the IRS focusing its attention in the future. The IRS posted former Commissioner Schulman’s prepared remarks that outlined major IRS strategic priorities. On the top of the list is a
[Read More]

If you have unreported foreign bank accounts and assets, you will want to rethink your current status when you see how high the IRS is raising the stakes. A recent Forbes article by Robert W. Wood titled “Forbes Undisclosed Foreign Bank Accounts? They’re Even More Explosive Now“ makes clear how the Agency is using its generous resources to go after and prosecute tax evaders who, in spite of several years
[Read More]

Attempting to understand the appeal of offshore tax havens, NPR’s Planet Money team decided this last July to wade into the murky offshore waters and create a few shell companies in countries advertising tax haven status. According to the Team’s Chana Jaffe Walt in the latest broadcast titled “The Downside of Tax Havens? Paperwork,” the process of buying the two companies one in Belize: “Unbelizable Inc” and one in Delaware:
[Read More]