WebCPA reports that the IRS increased the number of fraudulent tax refund claims it detected and stopped during the 2011 tax-filing season by 171 percent over the previous year: As of April 30, 2011, the IRS had identified 775,723 tax returns with $4.6 billion claimed in fraudulent refunds and prevented the issuance of $4.4 billion, [...]
Tags: IRS Audits · IRS procedure · Regulation of Tax Preparers · Tax Crimes
Fortunately, the Milwaukee Brewers surprising loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series has not blurred Milwaukee lawyer and blogger Brian Mahany‘s judgment in tax matters.¹ Mahany, proprietor of the law blog, Due Diligence, gives some excellent advice to prospective offshore investors in Looking to Evade Taxes? There are Still Plenty of People Willing to [...]
Tags: International Taxation · IRS Audits · Tax Crimes
I just googled “IRS audit of Google” and found this blog post by Paul Caron: Bloomberg, Google Tax Probe to Focus on Offshore Units, by Jesse Drucker: The IRS is auditing how Google avoided federal income taxes by shifting profit into offshore subsidiaries, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The agency is [...]
Tags: Announcements · International Taxation · IRS Audits
Last year I wrote a post titled IRS Disbars CPA for Relying on Client’s Income and Expense Numbers about a disturbing trend by the IRS to draft private tax preparers and force them to work as IRS auditors without pay. Here’s what I said: Tax preparers are advocates for their taxpayer clients and do not work for the IRS. Even [...]
Tags: IRS Audits · IRS procedure · Regulation of Tax Preparers
The IRS is apparently so happy with the results of it’s offshore voluntary disclosure program that it has established a similar program in the area of worker classification. Michael Cohn of AccountingToday writes that the IRS has introduced a new voluntary compliance program Wednesday to convince employers to resolve their past issues with classifying employees as independent [...]
Tags: Announcements · IRS Audits · IRS Penalties · News · Payroll Taxes · voluntary disclosure
Jack Townsend has an excellent post today (all of his posts are excellent) about C corporation constructive dividends. In United States v. Ellefsen, ___ F.3d ___, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 18684 (8th Cir. 2011), the appeals court addressed the issue of whether the IRS properly reclassified payments made by a C corporation to a trust, [...]
Tags: C Corporations · Corporate Tax · Deductible Expenses · IRS Audits
The tax gap – the difference between what taxpayers’ should pay to the IRS every year and what they actually pay – is estimated to be about $300 billion a year. Karen Hube writing for the Washington Post confirms what we have reported here: The IRS is stepping up its enforcement activities (emphasis is mine): [...]
Tags: IRS Audits · Tax Collections
