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
In a story that’s been getting a lot of attention in the taxosphere, Bob Shallit of the Sacramento Bee tells about a car wash business that was visited by two IRS agents demanding payment of 4 cents of delinquent taxes:
It was every business person’s nightmare.
Arriving at Harv’s Metro Car Wash in midtown Wednesday afternoon were [...]
Tags: IRS procedure · 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
Clarence Earl Gideon must be turning over in his grave.
Imagine a judicial system where criminal prosecutors had the power to disbar criminal defense lawyers. How long do you think it would take the United States Supreme Court to issue a unanimous decision declaring that system unconstitutional?
Yet the IRS is empowered to punish with the full force of its [...]
Tags: IRS procedure · Regulation of Tax Preparers · Taxpayer Rights
Here is the full text of IR-2010-24, dated March 2, 2010:
Washington — Unclaimed refunds totaling more than $1.3 billion are awaiting nearly 1.4 million people who did not file a federal income tax return for 2006, the Internal Revenue Service announced today. However, to collect the money, a return for 2006 must be filed with [...]
Tags: IRS procedure · Unfiled Returns
This is a little long, but well worth viewing. Especially for tax professionals.
Here’s the preface from C-SPAN Newsmakers:
Douglas Shulman, director of Internal Revenue Service (IRS), talked about the plan for the tax season, future changes such as new regulation of tax preparers, and a recent report from the National Taxpayer Advocate saying the record of IRS [...]
Tags: IRS procedure
You can file this Bloomberg.com story under airline bailout:
Airline baggage fees are not taxable, the Internal Revenue Service said, a victory for carriers trying to protect a growing revenue stream.
The agency, in a letter this month to an airline, pointed to the IRS code specifying that “charges for transportation of baggage” were not taxable. The letter was posted [...]
Tags: IRS procedure · News
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
You know you’re a tax nerd if you get exited when the IRS issues new streamlined notices.
It reminds me of Navin Johnson in the comedy classic The Jerk:
Navin R. Johnson: The new phone book’s here! The new phone book’s here!
Harry Hartounian: Boy, I wish I could get that excited about nothing.
Navin R. Johnson: Nothing? [...]
Tags: Announcements · IRS procedure
From the department of “duh” department TaxNews.Com reports that National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson has criticized the way the IRS processes income tax and information returns, which, the report warns, leads to more overpayments and underpayments of tax than there need to be (emphasis added):
Under current procedures, the IRS processes income tax returns before it processes [...]
Tags: Announcements · IRS procedure
Wall Street Journal – Taxes Blog
