Tax evasion is not just a problem for the wealthy. It’s a widespread issue that costs the government and honest Americans much needed revenues. Small businesses and sole proprietors are the largest contributors to the $450 billion tax gap (the difference between taxes reported and taxes paid) by skimming and under reporting their taxes. For their efforts, tax cheats are the focus of IRS scrutiny.
With IRS audits and aggressive IRS
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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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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
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Recently, I have been asked for my thoughts on the IRS’ proposal to pre-filled tax returns. Under a proposed system, the IRS would pre-fill taxpayers’ returns with the data employers and financial institutions have already reported. I came across a Forbes article titled: “Are IRS Prepared Tax Returns the Solution to our Tax Woes?“ that presented a decent overview of what such a system would mean for taxpayers, tax preparers and
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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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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
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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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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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With just 13 days until Tax Day, I thought many of you might need some tax relief humor. The article from @TodayMoney titled: “Happy birthday, modern tax system: 100 toasts and roasts“ could be just what the accountant ordered if you are agonizing over preparing your taxes. Here are some historical points of interest from the article about how our current tax system came into existence:

The current tax system was formalized
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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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The IRS just released its Dirty Dozen Tax Scam List for 2013 and introduced a video to remind taxpayers they need to protect themselves from the worst tax scams and schemes out there. While the “usual suspect” scams and schemes have not changed that much from last year, the notification explains how the IRS has stepped up their efforts to handle them, specifically identity theft related tax issues. Below the
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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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The IRS issued a press release late last week indicating an estimated 984,400 taxpayers who did not file a tax return in 2009, are entitled to a slice of $917 million in tax refunds! The IRS estimates that half the potential refunds for 2009 are more than $500.
There is a catch though. To collect the 2009 refund, a return must be filed, properly addressed, mailed and postmarked to the IRS
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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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