Back in 2008 I wrote about a group of Oklahoma college students who had bragged on MySpace about how much money they were making in their party business. Unfortunately for them, a state tax investigator was one of their “friends”:
Five current and former University of Central Oklahoma students bragged on MySpace that their party business had served thousands. Actually, a [...]
Tags: IRS Audits · IRS procedure · News · Tax Collections
Reporter: Hey, Willie, why do you rob all them banks?
Willie Sutton: ‘Cause that’s where the money is.
The New York Times reports that the Internal Revenue Service has lived up to its word and is intensifying its scrutiny of wealthy Americans:
The federal agency increased its audits of taxpayers who earned $1 million to $5 million by 33 [...]
Tags: IRS Audits · IRS procedure · Tax Collections · Tax Crimes
The New York Times Lynnley Browning reports that the feds are scrutinizing certain financial derivatives that they say Wall Street banks have been using to avoid collecting billions of dollars in withholding taxes on stock dividends (emphasis added):
The instruments, known as equity swaps, mimic ordinary shares and give investors like hedge funds the benefits of stock ownership, [...]
Tags: IRS Audits · IRS procedure · Tax Crimes
President Obama has famously defined the rich as those making in excess of $250,000 per year. Well, now we find out from the Associated Press that the IRS rarely audits anyone who makes less than $200,000. In other words, the IRS targets the rich:
Want to keep IRS auditors away? Keep your earnings under $200,000 and [...]
Tags: IRS Audits
Most people would rank an IRS audit somewhere between gout and being forced to endure an Adam Sandler movie in their list of life’s most painful experiences. It’s understandable then that even taxpayers who are above reproach would want to avoid one.
However, Jack Townsend says that audit avoidance might in some cases be a tax crime:
Today’s Tax Notes had [...]
Tags: IRS Audits · Tax Crimes
Anyone who has your social security or taxpayer identification number can file a Form 1099 with the IRS claiming to have paid you a sum certain during the tax year.
Whether or not you actually received the amount shown on the 1099 is irrelevant. The IRS assumes you got the money and will attempt to match it with [...]
Tags: IRS Audits · Tax Crimes
The IRS has created a new enforcement unit that targets wealthy individuals with complex financial holdings, Forbes’ Michael Tonkavic writes in Is The IRS Coming to Audit You:
This increased focus is motivated by several factors. First, there is an enduring perception–whether accurate or not–that wealthy people, well-insulated by teams of professionals, get away with a lot [...]
Tags: IRS Audits
Tax Girl Kelly Phillips Erb’s law firm has been selected for an IRS examination and she intends to write about it:
I actually thought long and hard about whether to post about my audit. Many of my colleagues warned against it, citing all kinds of good advice from “you don’t want to tick off the Service” to [...]
Tags: IRS Audits
The taxosphere is abuzz with talk about the idea of compensating taxpayers who are audited by the IRS.
Here are what two of my favorite tax bloggers have to say about the subject.
VITA tax preparer and economist Mary O’Keeffe from the splendid Bed Buffaloes in your tax code blog, in addition to having the unmitigated brass to suggest [...]
Tags: IRS Audits
And I thought I’d heard it all.
Ian Ayres and Barry Nalebuff of Forbes Magazine think that that more taxpayers should have their tax returns audited. That’s not so radical, right? Well, I’m not finished.
They also think the IRS should pay them for it:
Society would probably be better off with double the number of audits, but no one wants to [...]
Tags: IRS Audits
Wall Street Journal – Taxes Blog
