The IRS has released its annual list of the top 12 tax scams. Make sure the tax advice you’re following isn’t on this list.
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If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
That well-worn maxim applies to many things in life.
Including, of course, tax advice.
Someone saying you don’t need to pay taxes? Others claiming they can help you hide money off shore?
It’s all too good to be true.
In fact, some
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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
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The year is ending, and this is the time for tax cheats and debtors to come clean.
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Charlie Sheen spent some time recently with Lindsay Lohan.
The two actors, both controversial and sources of tabloid fodder, were on the set of Scary Movie 5.
According to news reports, Lohan told Sheen about her tax problem. She owes, according to previous reports, as much as a quarter of a million dollars in back taxes
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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
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Taxpayers face the most aggressive IRS in U.S. history, meaning tax cheats could be looking at prison time and substantial penalties.
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Many people think they can get away with it.
They think they can hide income and avoid having to pay income taxes.
It’s just a minor cheat, they think.
Or, they say, everybody cheats on their taxes.
That’s probably what someone like Leonid Shifrin thought.
A 42-year-old loan broker from Aurora, Colo., Shifrin underreported three
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The IRS has been busting celebrities. But you and your neighbors aren’t safe from the taxman either.
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O.J. Simpson will be remembered for many things.
He was a football player.
He was a product spokesman and actor.
He was an accused murderer who was found not guilty in a criminal trial only to be found guilty later in a civil one.
He was an armed robber who went after sports memorabilia.
But there’s one more thing
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Following a five-day trial, a New Mexico couple was found guilty of federal tax evasion charges. Joseph C. Kupfer, 49, and Elizabeth D. Kupfer, 50, failed to report at least $768,333 in taxable income during tax years 2004 through 2006, evading $286,175 in federal taxes.
During the years 2004 through 2006, court evidence showed, Joseph Kupfer received income from his business, Kupfer Consulting, and the Kupfers reported income from Kupfer Consulting
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More than 33,000 people reported offshore accounts to the IRS, resulting in revenue of more than $5 billion. But offshore accounts are only the beginning. The IRS is also looking at you.
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After the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. Department of Justice negotiated a settlement with Swiss banking giant UBS to release account information, effectively piercing the once-impenetrable Swiss banking veil, U.S. officials offered a deal to taxpayers hiding money
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There is little doubt that wealthy Americans are under scrutiny for tax collection. Nowhere is this more obvious than for those who have offshore bank accounts. More U.S. citizens living abroad are deciding to renounce their U.S. citizenship instead of facing IRS tax problems concerning new U.S. tax regulations namely the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) aimed at curbing tax evasion.
The subject of renouncing citizenship made front page headlines
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In another chapter of the IRS versus the Swiss Banks saga, Republican Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky has recently blocked an amendment to a U.S.-Swiss tax treaty that provides the IRS data on Americans with hidden offshore bank accounts. Paul believes the protocol is too “sweeping” and would threaten taxpayers’ Fourth Amendment rights that guard against unreasonable search and seizure.
Bloomberg’s article Rand Paul Seeks to Block Tax Treaty Change on
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News agencies were abuzz about Wednesday’s Supreme Court decision stating the IRS could not use the extended, six-year statute of limitations to collect unpaid taxes from a business, Home Concrete & Supply, LLC in a tax shelter case. Robert Wood of Forbes in his article HUGE Taxpayer Win: Supreme Court Tells IRS 3 Years to Audit Is PLENTY! believes the historic decision regarding this tax shelter case will have a
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With Tax Day a recent memory, many Americans still express their frustration with the whole tax process particularly if they find themselves settling tax debt with the IRS.  However, none have been more baffled by the American system of taxation than American citizens who live and work abroad. An International Herald Tribune article by David Jolly entitled Americans, the Tax Man Cometh gives a European glimpse into the plight
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Today – Tax Day – could be your latest reminder to settle your tax debt or come clean with the IRS!
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The big day has arrived!
April ushers in the most dreaded day of the year for many Americans — Tax Day.
Given how the Great Recession has stalled the economy over the last three years and directly affected most Americans’ pocketbooks, this year’s Tax Day will no doubt be even more dreaded
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The Obama Administration is continuing aggressive efforts to stamp out tax crime by appointing the right people with the right experience to get the job done. A recent Bloomberg article entitled, Keneally Confirmed to Lead Justice Department Tax Division announced Senate confirmation of Kathryn Keneally as the assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s tax division. She is expected to continue the crackdown of tax crimes such as identity theft
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Tax day Countdown: 15 days left until April 17. With only two weeks left, I want to encourage taxpayers to start the year off right and resolve any back tax issues they may be facing. It is doubly important if those issues include unreported foreign income and offshore accounts. A recent March IRS bulletin entitled IRS Offers Tax Tips for Taxpayers with Foreign Income reminds us that U.S. citizens and
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