It’s pretty clear Beyonce’s former manager and father, Mathew Knowles knows a thing or two about managing a superstar. However, it appears he’s less knowledgeable about what it means to owe back taxes to Uncle Sam. According to a Source article titled: “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems! Mathew Knowles Owes 1.2 Mil In Taxes“, Knowles, who failed to pay his taxes during 2010 and 2011, has now received a huge tax
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The stories that caught our attention this week ranged from tax evasion and fraud, to how the Offer in Compromise Program can help consumers, erasing tax debt in bankruptcy to the increase in IRS criminal investigations to the IRS under intense scrutiny.

The IRS Gets Scrutinized – By far the biggest IRS story this week revolved around the IRS itself! The agency is being closely examined for unfairly targeting conservative
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Question: I am filing bankruptcy to get out from underneath debt brought on by some bad financial decisions. Can I discharge in bankruptcy the IRS back taxes I owe for tax years 2008 and 2009 that amount to roughly $25,000? I am struggling financially to pay off all the debt I incurred in this mess but am particularly overwhelmed with the tax debt. Do I have any chance at tax
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Apparently, Lauryn Hill’s “Miseducation” may relate to how badly she handled her IRS tax problems. According to Accounting Today’s article titled: Fugees Singer Lauryn Hill Sentenced to Prison for Tax Evasion, Hill was sentenced Monday to three months in prison plus three months home confinement for failing to file tax returns for five years and not reporting more than $2.3 million in income. The article explains the terms of her
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Every year after the tax day, clients inquire as to what tax documents they need to keep and for how long. Last tax season I wrote a blog post on the subject, inspired by a Forbes article by Tax Girl, Kelly Phillips Erb titled: “How Long Should You Keep Records after Tax Day?” I thought the information would be helpful for those who may be wondering what documents to hold
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Government investigators reported that the Internal Revenue Service has recouped more than $5.5 billion for the voluntary disclosure programs. NPR sites an Associated Press article titled: Tax Cheats Pony Up $5.5 Billion in Amnesty Program highlights a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that shows how through these programs the IRS was able to get people to come forward to report their offshore bank accounts and assets in exchange for reduced
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Just because the April 15 tax deadline passed doesn’t mean people who owe back taxes should stand idly by. It’s time to “man up” to the challenge and resolve your IRS tax issues with the help of an expert tax resolution professional. But who do you choose? On a video episode from the Midday Sunday Fox 11 with host Tony Valdez program, I explain how the tax resolution industry has
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It’s the day after tax day and for those taxpayers who don’t intend on filing a tax return, you may want to reconsider. Not filing means you will be facing significant IRS tax issues. Failure to file is considered a misdemeanor that can be punishable up to $10,000 per year and one year in jail. In fact, IRS penalties are more severe for non-filing than for non-payment. If it sounds
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I came across an interesting Fiscal Times article titled: “High Income, No Taxes: How Big Money Beats the IRS“. The article highlights an IRS report written by economist Justin Bryan that provides comprehensive data on the number of taxpayers who make more than $200,000 and pay zero income taxes.
The report contains detailed data and summary data for the period 1977 to 2008 as well as charts and graphs of almost 4
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During my interview last tax season on the Midday Sunday Fox 11 with host Tony Valdez program, Mr. Valdez posed a scenario that many today may be facing: they have finished preparing their taxes, but don’t have the money to pay them. What should they do? This is a common question and the good news is that taxpayers with tax debt have options! Below the video, I offer some solutions.

If
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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
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Some of you may still be deciding whether to hire a tax professional or purchase tax preparation software. In this informative video, (one part of a series that came from my appearance on the Midday Sunday Fox 11 with host Tony Valdez program), I offer the following tax help tips:

When tax preparation software works
Know when it’s time to hire a tax professional
When it’s time to hire a tax resolution specialist

(Below
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As Tax Day April 15th draws near, I will be reaching into archive blog posts to gather useful and informative posts that can help taxpayers avoid IRS issues and find tax relief. Today’s topic: small business tax audits.
In a previous post and TaxMan episode for the Big Biz Show, I discussed how small business owners often make themselves targets for harmful tax audits citing a tragic story of business owners
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I wrote a Tax Matters post last week on the news that 311,566 federal workers (including retirees) owe over $3.5 billion in back taxes. Many of the details came from both Forbes and MSN who reported on this story. While this topic is quite galling in many respects, the simple fact remains; more government employees with presumably decent incomes are struggling to pay their tax debt and need tax relief.
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A Forbes article by contributor Peter J. Reilly titled “Time to Eliminate Joint Filing?“ proposes whether joint filing is really beneficial to couples. In recent years, Reilly has come to think that joint returns for married couples are not such a great idea especially at a time when the federal government is deciding its definition is of marriage through the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Other reasons for doing away with
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