Tax Scams For 2013
Every year the Internal Revenue System puts out a list that they call the “Dirty Dozen.” The “Dirty Dozen” is a list of the top tax scams that affect taxpayers.
Here is a look at this year’s “Dirty Dozen:
1. Identity Theft
2. Phishing. A phishing scam is when a person attempts to steal your information through either emails or fake websites.
3. Return Preparer Fraud. Though most tax professionals are honest, professional people others are not. Some tax specialists will attempt to encourage filers to claim improper credits, deductions or exemptions to increase their tax return.
4. Hiding Income Offshore. Having money in an offshore account is not illegal. What is illegal is to hide it offshore accounts for the purpose of not paying United States taxes on the funds.
5. “Free Money” from the IRS & Tax Scams Involving Social Security. Even though there is no such thing as Free Money scammers try to convince potential victims otherwise.
6. Impersonation of Charitable Organizations. Every time disasters happen, scammers strike.
7. False/Inflated Income and Expenses. This is when taxpayers are encouraged to bump up their income in order to maximize their refundable credits.
8. False Form 1099 Refund Claims. This is basically a redemption scheme. This is where a person files a series of false tax forms to gain a fraudulent tax return.
9. Frivolous Arguments. This is where scammers encourage taxpayers to make unreasonable and outlandish claims to avoid paying the taxes that they owe.
10. Falsely Claiming Zero Wages. Taxpayers are too often convinced that they can reduce their taxable income to zero.
11. Disguised Corporate Ownership. Here scammers attempt to hide where there income is really going or they manufacture false deductions.
12. Misuse of Trusts. Trusts have many legitimate purposes, but many people use trusts illegally to get out of paying the amount of taxes that they owe.
Categories: Federal Tax, Tax Evasion Tags:
Man Charged in Alleged Mitt Romney Tax Scheme
Michael Mancil Brown, 34, of Franklin, Tennessee has been formerly charged after he allegedly claimed that he had former GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s income tax returns. This alleged activity took place in 2012 during Romney’s presidential campaign, court documents state.
Brown is charged with six counts of wire fraud and six counts of extortion. A federal grand jury indictment was filed in the United States District Court in Nashville, Tennessee on Wednesday June 27, 2013.
According to the allegations Brown sent an anonymous letter to the offices of accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP located in in Franklin, Tennessee. The letter was received in the height of 2012’s presidential campaign. In the letter Brown allegedly demanded $1 million in the digital currency Bitcoin in exchange for the copies of Romney’s taxes that Brown alleged were in his possession.
The letter was delivered just before the Republican and Democratic national conventions. It stated that parties could get the alleged “tax forms released in exchange for $1 million in Google Bitcoins.”
Allegedly Brown claimed to have come into possession of Romney’s tax information after he accessed PwC’s internal systems. The indictment found these claims to be false.
At the time Romney had refused to release his tax returns from before 2010.
The charges that Brown faces in the indictment are merely accusations. He is still innocent until he is proven guilty.
These charges against Brown were investigated by the Nashville Field Office of the U.S. Secret Service with assistance from the Nashville Resident Agency of the FBI.
Brown faces charges of extortion and wire fraud. He continues to maintain his innocence.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax, Tax Evasion, Tax Law Tags:
All Political Groups Urged to Pay Taxes
Paying taxes may be beneficial for the government and other organizations that benefit from taxes, but for people who pay taxes, it is a burden and a pain in their pockets. No person who owned a radio or television could escape from paying taxes. But, why there are some political groups that don’t pay for taxes?
According to news recently, there is a number of political organization or group that doesn’t pay their taxes because of some reasons. Taxpayer advocates have urged those political groups to pay taxes properly and immediately because they are not the only one who is suffering from paying taxes. In the society, there are always different classes of societies that most of you are aware of. Some were born rich while others grew up from poverty. But, this does not mean that rich people and politicians will be exempted from paying taxes because it is their responsibility as a tax payer.
Lawmakers have taken actions about this issue and they said that monitoring irresponsible taxpayers may take time, but you can guarantee that they will do their job successfully. There were even bills passed and sponsored just to solve the problem. In addition to that, the process of paying tax was improved in order for legislators to track down those political groups that escaped in paying taxes.
Based from the recent progress report about implementing solutions to such issues, the numbers of taxpayers have increased. This just means that taxpayers or some political groups are now paying their taxes responsibly.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax, State Tax, Tax Evasion, Tax Law Tags: