Surviving the IRS Audit

“Most of us manage to get through every tax season relatively unscathed, but others are not so lucky. Nothing strikes fear and panic in a taxpayer’s heart like the prospect of a tax audit . What would you do if the IRS picked your tax return for an audit? Here we look at what you […]

Closing the Gap: Why the IRS Wants to Practice Random Acts of Audit

“Bottom Line:• According to IRS estimates, there is a $345 billion gross “tax gap” for 2001. The tax gap is the difference between taxes the IRS thinks should have been paid and taxes that actually were paid. • To better understand the tax gap and non-compliance with tax codes, the IRS is resurrecting random audits […]

IRS turns to computers to choose who gets audited and who doesn’t

“Taxpayers audited by the IRS aren’t selected randomly by humans any longer. They’re chosen methodically by computers looking, line by line, for irregularities in tax returns. An Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audit can make even an honest and thorough taxpayer worried. In fact though, an IRS audit is simply a review of your tax return […]

IRS to institute random audit program

“The IRS is paying particular attention to reporting of income, to wealthy people and especially to flow-through entities such as partnerships, S corporations (a domestic corporation of 100 or fewer shareholders) and trusts” “An April 16 article in the New York Times said the IRS is auditing the middle class more often, It cited IRS […]

IRS drops carrot for the stick to improve effectiveness

“In 2001, the IRS reported a $345 billion tax gap…To close the tax gap, the IRS spent 13 percent more on enforcement in 2006 than in 2004″“To further minimize the tax gap, the proposed 2008 IRS operating budget of 11.6 billion earmarks 63 percent of the overall budget for collection enforcement.”“Increased IRS enforcement also translates […]

Prison sentences for financial guru Wade Cook, wife

“U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly also ordered Cook, 57, to pay $3.75 million in back taxes on roughly $9.5 million of underreported income generated by sales of Cook’s books, tapes and seminars.
Zilly sentenced Cook’s wife, Laura, 54, to 1-½ years in prison. She is jointly responsible for paying the back taxes.”Complete article can be found […]

Father-and-son owners of Cipriani restaurants plead guilty to tax fraud

Complete article can be found here: http://www.courttv.com/news/2007/0731/cipriani_ctv.html?link=eaf“A Manhattan district attorney said he would not recommend jail time for the famed father-and-son owners of the Rainbow Room and Cipriani restaurants, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to swindling the city and state out of nearly $10 million in taxes.”
“Arrigo Cipriani, the patriarch of the Cipriani family restaurants, and […]

Wall Street’s Lucrative Tax Break is Under Fire

“The most controversial tax break on Wall Street, known simply as the Carry, is not authorized by any law and was never approved by Congress. Instead, it grew quietly over several decades, hinted at but never directly addressed in obscure court cases and arcane regulations issued by the Internal Revenue Service…”
Complete article can be found […]