An article in Bloomberg entitled IRS Called Easy on Criminal Tax Evaders in Watchdog’s Critique outlines Nina Olson of the National Taxpayer Advocate’s concerns that intentional tax evaders get more IRS help than those who weren’t intending to hide money from the U.S. government. Olson warns that future IRS collection efforts could be jeopardized due to confusion over the treatment of accidental tax evaders.

The IRS sees
[Read More]

While cutting government spending is often seen as a good thing, in the case of the IRS, it may be having the opposite effect. Forbes featured an article IRS Advocate: New Taxpayer Rights Crisis Is Brewing highlighting the release of a recent annual report to Congress by National Taxpayer Advocate, Nina E. Olson. Olson, known for being one of Washington’s most outspoken officials, states her concerns for current IRS policies
[Read More]

The IRS just released a study showing a rise of under-reporting by American taxpayers to the tune of $450 billion dollars in 2006; that’s up $105 billion from the last IRS study that was conducted in 2001.
A Forbes article called New IRS Tax Gap Report: Cheating Still Rampant shows taxpayers have an 83.1% compliance rate. That means that the 17% of American taxpayers who are under-reporting their taxes are contributing
[Read More]

Major news agencies are reporting the recent IRS announcement that it was “reopening” the offshore voluntary disclosure program to encourage taxpayers to disclose their offshore accounts and becoming current with their IRS tax debt. An article written in Forbes, IRS Offers Taxpayers One More Chance, shined some light on the most likely motives for this latest IRS amnesty: money.
In a statement from the January 9th press release, IRS Chief Doug
[Read More]

As we always say at Tax Resolution Services “you can run but you can’t hide from the IRS” which was reinforced in a recent Forbes article called IRS Summons? Meet John Doe.  The article shed some light on the “other” way the IRS can find taxpayers suspected of tax debt through what is called the John Doe Summons.  The John Doe Summons works to gather information like:

pursuing investors in tax
[Read More]

For those who owe the IRS back taxes, you will want to take note before the new tax year. There is a new tool in the IRS tax collection arsenal poised to better recover unpaid taxes, detect tax fraud schemes, and reduce the number of fraudulent refunds the agency pays out than ever before.  An Information Week article “IRS Uses Analytics to Help Collect Delinquent Taxes”, announced news of the
[Read More]

This Tuesday, a deadline passed in which 11 Swiss banks were given an IRS ultimatum to hand over account information and pay billions in fines to avoid US tax evasion prosecution. However, what the banks have not divulged are the claims that they would also have to provide all correspondence of their offshore clients over the last 11 years. An online article from “US tax “ultimatum” has Swiss banks sweating”
[Read More]

In a story straight out of a Hollywood movie, the estate of the late heiress, Huguette Clark has been shrouded in controversy since her death this May at age 104. Not only has her estate been slapped with $50 million in IRS penalties, her trusted financial advisors are facing allegations of tax fraud by the office of the public administrator of New York County. Born in 1906, the youngest child
[Read More]

Many Americans like preparing their taxes every year; it helps them feel in control of their finances and they don’t want to pay someone else to do it. With a tough economy still lurking and the availability of low-cost often free tax preparation software, many are inclined to cut their basic costs, and doing their own taxes is one place they believe they can save. If a taxpayer has a
[Read More]

Every year, millions of taxpayers fail to file their federal taxes by the April 18 deadline. This inaction inevitably leads to paying more in the form of unnecessary fines and penalties on top of the taxes owed. Even those folks, who filed an extension, are still responsible for filing the taxes owed plus penalties for the delay. Depending on the tax amount due, continuing to neglect to file yearly tax
[Read More]

The IRS has created its own storm of controversy by going after US Citizens worldwide to collect their taxes. But from the nearly one million American citizens who live and work in Canada, the IRS received a stern message: clarify the regulations for tax compliance. Initially, many law-abiding citizens living abroad who failed to file US tax returns or declare financial holdings were simply unaware that they needed to do
[Read More]

The IRS is busy scrutinizing the hallowed halls of higher education. A recent article written by Michael McDonald of Bloomberg News, reports on IRS’ stepped up enforcement of non-profit colleges and universities across America to properly report income from all revenue streams. The American academic community is seeing first-hand the strong arm tactics of the IRS including the beloved Harvard University and the hotel it owns overlooking the Charles River.
Universities
[Read More]

The IRS has temporarily suspended its controversial plan to fingerprint tax preparers in large part due to objections raised by the American Institute of CPA’s (AICPA). An excerpt from Accounting Today’s article, IRS Delays Tax Preparer Fingerprinting Requirements, shows IRS chief Doug Schulman, acknowledging  they got the message and have decided “to hold off fingerprinting” while they consider all the information received by “interested parties.”  The AICPA letter to the
[Read More]

A recent article in Forbes, Officers of Non-profits Face Personal Liabilities for Taxes by Robert Wood made me think about small business, specifically the people behind non-profit organizations (NPO). The well-meaning people who set up NPO’s provide the community at large with charitable programs and services that are usually educational, literary, religious, or scientific in nature. In return, non-profits receive tax-exempt status. By not focusing on putting profits in shareholders
[Read More]

As a certified tax resolution specialist, I have said it many times before; it never pays to hide from the IRS. Nowhere is that more apparent than with the government crackdown on off-shore tax evaders. The creation in 2010 of Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) set into motion serious U.S. efforts to combat tax evasion by U.S. taxpayers with investments in offshore accounts. Not only do FATCA regulations have
[Read More]