IRS collection officials do not want you to hire a tax professional. Why? Because when you represent yourself the IRS has a decided advantage. First, it is easier for them to intimidate and frighten you because they know you don’t know the law. Second, it makes it infinitely more likely that their procedural mistakes, their over-assessments and their violations of your [...]
Tags: Announcements · Back Taxes · Taxpayer Rights
Lauren Sanders and Arden Dale of the Wall Street Journal report that the IRS has been accused by a group of criminal tax lawyers of doing a bait and switch on taxpayers who voluntarily disclosed their offshore tax accounts: An influential group of criminal tax lawyers is sharply criticizing the Internal Revenue Service for its [...]
Tags: Back Taxes · IRS procedure · Tax Crimes
Ryan J. Donmoyer of Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports in Americans Seeking Reward Money Inform IRS on Others that: Americans seeking reward money are turning in neighbors, clients and employers they suspect of cheating on taxes to the IRS at a rate of nearly eight per day, the director of the agency’s whistleblower program said. Steve Whitlock, the [...]
Tags: Back Taxes · Tax Crimes · Unfiled Returns
Jack Townsend of Federal Tax Crimes blog posted about the recently released IRS FAQs on the voluntary disclosure program for taxpayers with offshore accounts. Jack makes several important observations including: Voluntary Disclosure requires a “noisy” disclosure. Simply sending in amended or delinquent returns or forms (“quiet disclosures”) does not qualify for the program. . . . those [...]
Tags: Back Taxes · International Taxation
Reuters reported yesterday that President Obama wants to quadruple the IRS enforcement budget: President Barack Obama proposed on Thursday nearly doubling funds to enforce U.S. tax laws next year, with an aim of more than quadrupling funding for tax compliance to $2.1 billion within five years. The budget plan seeks $12.1 billion for the Internal Revenue [...]
Tags: Back Taxes · Legislative Watch · Tax Collections · Tax Policy
Many people, including some lawyers and tax professionals, erroneously believe that federal income taxes can never be discharged in a Bankruptcy proceeding. Generally, tax debts that have been outstanding more than 3 years from the due date of the tax returns giving rise to them and that have been outstanding more than 240 days from [...]
Tags: Back Taxes · Tax Collections
In these bad economic times few of us have any extra cash laying around after we pay our monthly living expenses. The IRS doesn’t care about that, right? Wrong. If you can’t pay your debt and can prove it, the IRS will stop (at least temporarily) attempting to collect the debt from you. Non-Collectible Status [...]
Tags: Back Taxes · Tax Collections
