Bill in Consideration Will Allow Government to Fire Federal Tax Cheats
There has been a legislation that was reintroduced this week by a House lawmaker that will allow the government to fire federal employees that do not pay their taxes.
This same legislation was passed by the house this past summer in a bipartisan vote; however, the legislation died in the Senate. Representative Jason Chaffetz brought life to the bill and guided it through the House during the 112th Congress.
The legislation presented would be applicable to executive and legislative branch workers, in addition to those working at the Postal Service who fail to pay taxes or haven’t settled on an agreement with the government to repay their debt. This same bill will also prevent the government from hiring people with severe tax debt. Severe tax debt is defined as an outstanding debt to the federal government where a public lien had needed to be filed. Currently, Internal Revenue Service employees are the only ones that will be fired for failing to keep up with their taxes.
Chaffetz mentioned on the debate room floor that the employees who are willing to make an effort to pay back the taxes will not get fired. Looking at a report from the IRS, there have been more than 98,000 federal employees that owed over $1 billion in unpaid federal income taxes in the year 2010. In addition, retired civilians had a tax debt of about $470 million, and over 83,000 military veterans had owed close to $1.6 billion in unpaid taxes in the year 2010.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax, Tax Evasion, Tax Law Tags: federal income tax, federal tax, federal tax fraud, tax cheats, tax evasion, tax law
Trained Volunteers Can Help You Prepare Taxes
It’s almost always a good thing to start filing your income taxes at the start of each year. It’s even better if you get lucky and give your bank account a nice little push by getting a refund from the federal or state government.
Let’s face it; tax time is always a stressful time of the year, not to mention frustrating. It seems like the methods of how to go about it are always changing. It’s always a hassle to find out if you have filed everything correctly, and if you have fully maximized your return. We all want to save a few bucks by doing taxes ourselves; however, dealing with your taxes on your own may cost you in the big picture.
During this tax season, know that you have the option of having your taxes prepared for no charge at all by trained volunteers. This will save you time, money and the stress of having to deal with your taxes on your own. This is the 5th consecutive year that volunteers have offered this very convenient option, so take advantage of it.
There are some rules set for the volunteers. They may assist senior citizens with homestead credit and any individual with an annual gross income of less than $58,000 in filing their state and/or federal income taxes. These volunteers are only able to help in filing personal income taxes only. There are not able to assist in preparing any other type of taxes for you, as it’s part of their policy.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax, State Tax, Tax Law Tags: federal income tax, federal tax, free tax, free tax prep, income tax, IRS, tax preperation
Man in Clarksville Guilty of Tax Fraud
A man in Clarksville had pleaded guilty in a federal court for the crime of filing a false tax income on January 14, 2013.
The man’s name was James Robert Sanford, 53, and in addition to filing a false tax income he was also guilty for aiding and abetting a false claim for a federal income tax refund. Jerry E. Martin, an Attorney for Tennessee, officially announced the news.
Sanford had brushes with the law a couple of years before this incident. On November 30, 2011, Sanford had been indicted by a federal grand jury in Nashville, and was charged with 6 counts of filing false income tax returns. Based on the indictment filed, Sanford had prepared and filed 2006 and 2007 federal income tax returns for him and his wife, knowing full well that the returns were fraudulent. The 2006 tax return claimed refunds of $5,774 and the 2007 tax return claimed refunds of $4,276.
Not only has Sanford filed false income tax returns for himself, but he did it for others as well, making a profit through his schemes. The returns that he claimed for these refunds for others were from $3,490 to $7,128.
Sanford will be sentenced on April 8, and he is likely to face a maximum penalty of 5 years imprisonment, in addition to a $250,000 fine for each false income tax return he made. He has come clean for all the false income tax returns he has claimed, and will be sentenced by Chief Judge William J. Haynes, Jr.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax, Tax Evasion, Tax Law Tags: federal income tax, federal tax, federal tax fraud, income tax, tax crime, tax evasion, tax fraud