April 10th, 2014 → 4:30 am @ danielle // No Comments
Owner of Tax Cash Sooo Fast pleads guilty to filing false income tax returns.
Apparently, the IRS gives no points for creative writing.
Kesha Spencer, 39, of Cincinnati, Ohio, recently found this out the hard way, as she pled guilty to one count of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false federal income tax returns.
According to court documents, Spencer operated a tax preparation business located in Cincinnati, Ohio known as Tax Cash Sooo Fast. She prepared and electronically filed approximately 200 false federal individual income tax returns with the IRS for each of the 2010 and 2011 income tax years.
April 3rd, 2014 → 4:26 am @ danielle // No Comments
A New Mexico farmer has been ordered to pay more than $18 million in restitution and sentenced to 14 years in prison for tax fraud and fraudulently collecting government-sponsored farm subsidies.
According to prosecutors, Bill Melot, of Hobbs, hasn’t filed a personal income tax return since 1986.
They say he owes the Internal Revenue Service more than $25 million in federal taxes.
Melot was convicted of tax evasion, failure to file tax returns, making false statements to the USDA and impeding the IRS following a four-day jury trial in Albuquerque.
He must pay nearly $18.5 million in restitution to the IRS and about $227,000 to the U.S.
March 28th, 2014 → 4:23 am @ danielle // No Comments
If a tax preparer promises a return that sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
This tax season, the U.S. Attorney is promising a crackdown on unscrupulous tax-preparers. Here is a cautionary tale.
Bryan Gardner is serving six-and-a-half years in prison. His brother, Jeremy Lasane, is serving 12 years, and he also has to pay back almost $800,000.
They were convicted of income tax fraud and identity theft for ripping off the social security numbers of innocent victims and filing false tax returns.
They are just two of the many white-collar criminals the U.S. Attorney’s office is targeting this tax season.
March 21st, 2014 → 12:00 pm @ danielle // No Comments
Did you know that you have the power as an individual taxpayer to appeal almost any decision made by the IRS? In fact, you can appeal audit findings, penalties and interest, rejected offers-in-compromise, liens, seizures, garnishments and other collection actions.
According to the IRS, “Appeals is not for you if:
– Your only concern is that you cannot afford to pay the amount you owe.
– The correspondence you received from the IRS was a bill and there was no mention of Appeals.”
So in these two instances, an appeal would be a premature action to take. If you are concerned that you cannot afford the pay the tax you owe, there are channels to go through before you would begin the appeal process.
March 17th, 2014 → 12:00 pm @ danielle // No Comments
If you owe money to the IRS, and you are receiving Social Security benefits due to: Federal Old-Age and Survivors Trust Fund (or) Disability Insurance Benefits. The IRS can take 15% of your Social Secu-rity payments to satisfy your tax debt.
Prior to 1996, there was a $750/month “off limits” amount that had to be left for the Social Security recipient. However, that changed with the introduction of the Federal Payment Levy Program, which allowed for 15% of the total monthly payment to be collected – regardless of the amount.
However, benefit payments such as lump sum death benefits, benefits paid to children are not eligible.
March 14th, 2014 → 4:26 am @ danielle // No Comments
The government recently argued that it has the authority to regulate tax return preparation businesses using a “dead horse” law as precedent. Tax preparers, represented by the Institute for Justice, challenged the ruling in the case Sabina Loving et al v. Internal Revenue Service.
At the hearing of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, both sides argued about the applicability and precedent of an 1884 law that applied to loss claims regarding horses dead or missing because of the Civil War.
The proposed regulations call for tax preparers to pass a competency test upon opening shop. Tax preparers would also be required to keep up with annually updated continuing education.
Though this case is obviously a cause of concern for many tax return preparers, the issue is far from settled.
March 7th, 2014 → 4:52 am @ danielle // No Comments
Lance Drury was headlined with Steve Forbes at an event in New York City on June 20 & 21, 2013 called “Success in the New Economy.” Leaders in their respective industries and professions were asked to attend the summit in NYC. Lance d…
October 26th, 2013 → 6:44 pm @ danielle // No Comments
It’s possible that a taxpayer could make settlement pro-posals to the IRS and “plead their case” that they could not otherwise pay the debt by mak-ing an “Offer-in-Compromise”.
In a position paper dated May 27, 2005, the American Associa-tion of Attorney-Certified Public Accounts revealed that “(Offers-In-Compromise) acceptance rate has dropped from 39.8% to 22.9% from 2001 to 2004, while the number of accepted offers declined from 38,643 to 19,546, a decline of over 50% in just three years.” A blockade put up by the IRS like on November 1, 2003, the IRS began charging a $150 processing fee for most Offer-In-Compromise proposals.
October 18th, 2013 → 6:40 pm @ danielle // No Comments
Let’s say you’re married and you file a “married filing jointly” re-turn, to take advantage of the unique tax benefits offered by this particular filing status. You have a regular “day job” where your employer takes out your taxes every pay-check and gives you a W-2 at the end of the year. The two of you decide to take a weekend just to sort through all of the paperwork and get a grip on the tax situation with his business.
After muddling through the rec-ords as best you can, and de-ducting expenses, you determine that he owes taxes on $48,500 of taxable income.
October 10th, 2013 → 5:11 pm @ danielle // No Comments
The subject of tax shelters and financial transactions meant to reduce taxable income has been a perpetual source of contention between taxpayers and the IRS.
A recent and prominent case, Superior Trading LLC et al. v Commis-sioner of Internal Rev-enue, No. 12-3367, tipped the issue in favor of the IRS. In a hit to taxpayers seeking to reduce taxes through some types of distressed asset/debt (“DAD”) transactions, the Seventh Circuit Appeals Court in Chicago, IL sided with the IRS.
The court ruled that such transactions are not legitimate tax shelters. Using such financial engineering in an attempt to reduce taxable income will very likely result in the original tax and additional penalties owed to the IRS.
