Two years ago we addressed the IRS’s flawed refund procedure in False Refund Schemes and Backwards IRS Return Processing Rules. Today, Jay Weaver of the Miami Herald gives a distressing update in Scammers Steal IRS Refunds with Ease: “We are seeing defendants once involved in other types of crimes [such as drug trafficking] getting involved in identity-theft schemes, [...]
Tags: Individual Taxation · IRS procedure · News · Tax Crimes
Mark Cuban is a billionaire and a very smart guy, but his opinion that reducing corporate taxes does not create jobs is off the mark: Companies hire because they need people to compete and keep customers happy, not because of lower tax rates … . Bottom line is that while CEOs of public companies and financial engineers [...]
Tags: Corporate Tax · The Economy
The pressures of having to write a daily column can cause perverse results and nobody demonstrates this phenomenon better than the New York Times’ Paul Krugman. William Anderson of Krugman-in-Wonderland has the latest manifestation of Krugman Cloven Foot-in-Mouth disease: In his latest column, Krugman demands higher taxes on “the rich” (of which category multi-millionaire Krugman resides), Krugman calls for a financial transactions tax, [...]
Tags: Politics of Taxes · Tax Policy
Taxpayers and their advisors have good reason to want to categorize losses as theft losses rather than investment losses. Theft losses are treated as ordinary losses and are deductible in the year incurred.¹ Investment losses are treated as capital losses and are limited to the amount of capital gains plus $3,000. It is, therefore, not surprising that TIGTA has [...]
Tags: Announcements · Deductible Expenses · IRS Audits · News
The Internal Revenue Service is moving into the second phase of its tax preparer regulation initiative by beginning next week to schedule the first competency tests for tax preparers. I used to be in favor of regulation of unenrolled tax preparers because anyone regardless of their education level, criminal background and skill level could hold themselves out [...]
Tags: Regulation of Tax Preparers
From Kelly Phillips-Erb aka TaxGirl: Talk about the naked truth. Fans of beleaguered artist Ai Weiwei have tapped the power of the internet to show their support… by posing naked. Ai Weiwei was charged with tax evasion earlier this year, a charge that he claims is related to his outspoken criticism of the Chinese government. [...]
Tags: Satire · Tax Crimes
Fox News reports that a Florida public school administrator called the sheriff after a pair of consenting 12-year-olds shared a kiss on the playground: Lee County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to Orange River Elementary School after two female students were debating over who liked a 12-year-old boy more. At that point, one of the girls walked over and [...]
Tags: News
