Florida Prisoner Caught Filing Fraudulent Federal Income Tax Returns
It seems that prison isn’t a good enough reason to keep you from cheating on your federal income tax.
WJHG (Source Below) has reported that Michael William Joseph III, an inmate of the Apalachee Correctional Institution in Florida, has pleaded guilty for filing fraudulent federal income tax returns to the IRS. This wouldn’t be Joseph’s first conviction of tax fraud, however. He has been serving time for faking federal income tax returns dating all the way back to 2006.
Prison, however, hasn’t kept Joseph from trying to scam the government with some fake federal income tax returns. He had filled out a series of tax forms with fabricated amounts of income and deductions. He had used the identities of his co-inmates in order to validate his returns. The illegitimately refunded federal income tax would then be deposited to various accounts he had control over.
What had tipped off Joseph’s tax scam was the size of his illegal refunds. Joseph had sought a total of nearly $180,000 in federal income tax returns. For a time it seemed that Joseph had managed to pull his scheme off when the government cashed him out for an alleged $50,000.
But investigators quickly got wind of his scam and successfully retrieved over $17,500 of the unlawfully refunded federal income tax from his personal bank account. An additional $11,600 was found in the mother’s ex-husband’s backyard.
The fifty three year old Joseph was indicted on various charges including but not limited to filing false federal income tax returns. Other charges include theft and mail fraud, amounting to a prison sentence of up to twenty years.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax, State Tax, Tax Evasion, Tax Law Tags: avoiding taxes, federal income tax, federal tax, income tax, IRS, tax code, tax court, tax crime, tax evasion, tax fraud
Settling the tax debts of your own accord
There are many who may have had problems in paying down their tax debts; you are not the only one. So, there’s nothing to feel lost or dejected about this. If you owe quite a large amount in tax debt, there are some options which can help you solve the tax debt problem. The two main options are the installment payment option and the other is the settlement payment option. There are again various options under these two options, which you can avail of in order to pay off your tax debts. The tax debt settlement options work to help you down most of the tax debts.
Settling IRS tax debt
Some of the options under which you can settle your tax debts are:
1. Compromise offer – Offer in compromise provides the option to settle tax debt where you can pay less than the full amount owed. If you cannot pay off the taxes in full, you can try out this option. The circumstances which are considered to determine if you can make payments under this option are:
- Your ability to pay
- Your income
- The expenses and
- The asset equity
2. Penalty reprieve – If there are options for you to prove that there are valid reasons due to which you are having problems in paying down the IRS tax debt (due to non affordability), the IRS may allow you the penalty reprieve. At the least, on an approximation one-third of the tax debt penalty amount resulting out of non-payment of the taxes, may get abated by the IRS later. This significantly lowers the debt amount with regards to the taxes owed by you to the IRS.
3. IRS tax bankruptcy – If you think that you are going to qualify for the Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you can consider trying out this tax debt relief option. It is only the income taxes which can be discharged through bankruptcy, and that too the recent ones. In order to decide as to which of the tax debts can be included in a bankruptcy program, you can talk to your bankruptcy attorney. He/she may let you know about the requirements or the eligibility criteria for including tax debts in bankruptcy. However, you need to know that this definitely cannot be considered as a good option as always, because bankruptcy has a high negative effect on the credit and almost all your assets are going to be liquidated through this.
There is also the option for you to get the help of a tax professional. He/she may help you with settling the tax debts, and therefore help you in solving the tax debt issues. This process won’t be highly different than a debt settlement program, though the types of debts are different. So, these are the options you can have under the tax debt settlement option, and if you are having problems in managing your tax debts, you can try out these options based on the tax debts owed by you, and the level of your affordability.
George Adams is an independent Financial advisor and attached to some financial communities. He has vast knowledge in debt consolidation, debt settlement, etc. For information on debt settlement please visit here: http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/de … ement.html.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax, State Tax Tags: federal income tax, federal tax, income tax, tax code, tax law
Federal income tax changes to your January paychecks
Obama administration and US congress have agreed to the 2013 federal income tax rates, but it may affect your January paychecks. The Washington leaders are busy in a talk about 2013 income tax negotiations, but still no final agreement has been reached. UC process the payroll payments to many employees early in January and you will continue with federal income tax rates of 2012 till President Barrack Obama and Congress reach a final agreement and implement new guidelines for 2013 federal income tax brackets.
The new tax rates will be published once IRS offers the official guidelines and organizations will need to upgrade their payroll structure accordingly. Federal income tax rates for 2013 will be published along with IRS publications and new payroll system will not make any adjustments after fully implementation of new tax rates. But it is important to know that January paychecks will reflect the two tax changes;
- The updated 2013 California income tax rates resulting from income passage of Governor Brown and sales tax initiatives for 2013, under proposition 30.
- QASDI social security of employee will be updated from current value of 4.2 percent to new value of 6.2 percent tax rate.
It means 25 percent federal income tax along with 38.3 percent Medicare payroll taxes and 13.3 percent social security are going to federal income tax in 2012. For a middle-class tax filer, the average state income tax is 4.82 percent, which brings 43.12% to state and federal taxes.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax, Tax Law Tags: corporate tax, federal income tax, federal tax, income tax, payroll tax, tax code, tax increase, tax reform