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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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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Just ten days until April 15! On the run up to tax day, we do our best to provide tax relief tips for last minute taxpayers. The tax news topics covered this week include: the annual IRS Data Book release, the official release of the 2013 IRS Dirty Dozen List, a little tax relief humor at Uncle Sam’s expense, tips on filing and tax payments.
Tax Help Tips on Filing and
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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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Reminder: 18 days left until Tax Day!
Here’s a review of the tax relief news covered this week. Featured topics include: IRS releases 2013 Dirty Dozen Tax Scam/Scheme List, businessmen guilty of tax evasion and filing false returns, IRS apologies for expensive Star Trek training video and hiring a tax professional versus tax preparation software.
IRS Releases 2013 Dirty Dozen Tax Scam-Scheme List – as well as a video to remind taxpayers
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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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This episode of my national network television show, TaxMan gives consumers further insight into my professional history beginning with my education, employment and qualifications. It’s because of these experiences and desire to help people resolve their tax problems that I took on a new business venture in a relatively small industry and named it Tax Resolution Services, Co. (TRS).  (*Below the video are the main details of my story).

Education
I
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It’s Friday, and that means it’s time for a round-up of tax news we reported on this week. Here are some tax related stories that were particularly interesting:
Tax Help Tips
Eleven Tax Changes to Know before Filing
Now that tax season is here, I wanted to let people know that the recent changes to the tax code could affect their wallet! A Forbes article provided the eleven important changes that
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With tropical storm intensity, Florida is currently leading the nation in tax identity fraud cases. A previous Tax Matters blog post cited a recent CNBC article titled “Florida Hit by ‘Tsunami’ of Tax Identity Fraud” that underscores the severity of this major, nationwide tax problem the IRS has been unable to resolve. According to the CNBC article, however, tax identity fraud is more than just a nuisance. It has now
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The IRS has made getting tax help 24 hours a day/7 days a week on IRS.gov easier than ever before. They have done this by re-designing their website to make it more user-friendly for both consumers and tax professionals. Here are the top ten reasons to visit the IRS.gov website:

Get 24/7 Access — for Free. IRS.gov has tax forms and answers when you need them – day or night. The Interactive
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Sometimes clients describe their tax situation as “Tax Armageddon.” That’s how our client Mike felt when he first came to Tax Resolution Services, Co. facing huge tax debt issues. While it may “feel” like Armageddon, it really isn’t because there is a solution to every problem even Mike’s. Here’s his story:
“I went through a divorce several years ago and found myself strapped for cash because all of a sudden there
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Straight out of a soap opera script, the IRS appears to be facing its own public relations nightmare in the form of a sex scandal. A Huffington Post article titled “Vincent Burroughs Accuses IRS Agent Dora Abrahamson of Coercing Sex by Using Threat of Tax Penalty“ reveals the details of a salacious and inappropriate meeting between IRS agent and taxpayer under audit.
It appears agent Dora Abrahamson initially contacted Vincent Burroughs,
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Last week I was quoted in The Fiscal Times article “Tax Hell: New Laws, New Reasons to Hire an Expert” by Steve Yoder. The article mentions Taxpayer Advocate, Nina Olson’s recent report to Congress that is critical of the burden the current tax system places on taxpayers, specifically on tax return preparation. Olson laments that the tax code is so complex, its burden essentially “requires” taxpayers to use their own
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On the run up to tax day, I will continue posting client success stories and testimonials. The purpose is to remind taxpayers with IRS tax debt issues they are not alone. Often through these client’ stories, which may be similar to their own, struggling taxpayers will be inspired to take the first steps and get tax help.
It’s rewarding when we get the best IRS tax settlement for our clients that
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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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