This just in: Received an email this morning purporting to be from the IRS. The top of the email had the IRS logo (sort of) along with the following text:
After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive 518.56$ tax refund under section 501(c) (13) of the Internal Revenue Code. Please submit the Tax Refund Request Form and allow us 3-9 days to process it.
Yours faithfully,
Sarah Hall Ingram, CommissionerThis notification has been sent by the Internal Revenue Service, a bureau of the Department of the Treasury.
Folks, this is a scam (there’s a link where I’ve bold-faced the “tax refund request form”).
The only tax refund request form I know of for an individual is Form 1040, in it’s varieties, including amended returns. The other lovely giveaway is the use of the dollar sign AFTER the amount; clearly it was written either by an idiot, or someone from outside the United States unfamiliar with common American usage.
If you take the 4 seconds to search Google for 501 c 13, the supposed code authorizing the refund, you’ll find that that code refers to cemetery companies — yet more silliness.
In case you don’t already know this, NEVER click on such a link.
The main takeaway for you, is the fact that the IRS NEVER initiates contact with a taxpayer via email. Ever. Period.
Tell your friends.
Resch [IRS spokesperson] reported that the qualifying purchase of the new car, light truck, motor home or motorcycle must have occurred between Feb. 17, 2009, and before the end of the year.
“A person can deduct the taxes paid on up to $49,500 of the (vehicle) purchase price … regardless of whether or not the taxpayer itemizes,” she said, but the deduction begins to phase down for taxpayers with an annual gross income of $125,000 for an individual and $250,000 for those filing jointly.
Many recent home buyers may be aware of the first-time home buyer federal housing tax credit on homes purchased in 2009, but fewer may be familiar with the move-up/repeat home buyer tax credit on homes purchased after Nov. 6.
First-time home buyers may qualify for a tax credit of up to $8,000 while repeat home buyers may qualify for up to $6,500 in tax credits, Resch said.
Read the full article here.
Before you think you might be off the hook for your taxes, reading that headline, know that they will eventually get around to you. In fact, with news like this, I would be surprised if the Service doesn’t request and get a fat new increase in their budget to plug this hole, especially given the current state of the Federal government’s finances.
According to the IRS, $23 billion in unpaid individual income tax debt existed in 2001, the agency’s most recent estimate. The notice phase is the first of the IRS’s three-phase process to collect unpaid debt. The IRS annually sends notices to millions of individual taxpayers for billions of dollars of unpaid tax debt. But Congress and others have questioned the effectiveness of the IRS’s collection process, the GAO noted.
Although the notice phase is a key part of the IRS’s approach and strategy for resolving billions of dollars of individuals’ unpaid tax debt, the IRS lacks certain internal controls to assure that notices to individuals are achieving the most benefits — such as debt collected or unpaid debt cases otherwise resolved — with the resources being used, according to the GAO. The IRS has no documented objectives for the notice phase and no performance measures to indicate how well the phase is performing in resolving debt cases or achieving other desired results.
And, as she needed to, she gave it back.
A house cleaner in the Denver area received a hefty refund from the IRS by mistake.
Local station CBS 4 reported that Laura Schultz, an employee of Sunshine Maids, received a refund check for $122,783.51 from the service. When she reported the error to the IRS, she was instructed to void the check.
Despite the IRS error, and her honesty in reporting the mistake, she still owes $80 on her taxes.
From today’s L.A. Times (click link for entire article):
A nationwide crackdown on federal income tax evasion using secret Swiss bank accounts yielded an agreement from a Malibu businessman to plead guilty to hiding at least $1 million abroad.
John McCarthy is the first tax dodger in California — and the fourth nationwide — to be prosecuted after Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, agreed to reveal the identities of U.S. customers.
Richard Hatch, the first-season winner of “Survivor,” has requested an early release from his in-home jail sentence for tax evasion so he can rejoin the show and win enough to pay back the IRS, but the judge said no.
Hatch, who collected the TV series’ first million-dollar prize, was convicted in January 2006 on three counts of tax evasion for failing to pay taxes on his $1 million winnings and about $400,000 in income from hosting a radio show and rental earnings. He was sentenced to 51 months in prison in July 2006.
… but the State of California is serious about collecting their due — here’s a little salacious gossip:
Rap singer and actor Snoop Dogg is facing a tax lien from the State of California, along with assault charges.
His real name, Calvin Broadus Jr., shows up on a list of California tax scofflaws, alongside the likes of Burt Reynolds, Dionne Warwick and Sinbad. The California Franchise Tax Board lists him as owing $284,053 and a tax lien has been placed on his residence, according to E! Online. He is in good company, however. Other rappers with tax troubles include Lil’ Kim, Method Man and Xzibit.
If you do business in the City of Los Angeles, and have either not filed or under-reported on your business taxes, you have until the end of July to correct the situation and avoid up to 40% penalties — More details here.
Make sure you adjust your withholding on the state level if you’re a Californian — otherwise, your withholding may not reflect changes in the law, and you could end up owing more money to the state at the end of the year. More information
The US Supreme Court made it even harder to prove age discrimination in employment cases. See More
