… 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
June 2009 – The Enterprise Zone (EZ) tax incentive program was created in 1986 to help local businesses, and encourage outside businesses to locate in economically depressed areas. The federal government does not have a comparable economic development program or business tax incentives.
The FTB has a useful primer on California’s Enterprise Zones here…
According to the Wall Street Journal:
If you’ve been in the habit of shopping around for a new term-life insurance policy every few years, you may want to reconsider that strategy: After years of falling premiums, many insurers are raising prices on term policies.
Read more here…
April 15th has come and gone. Did you miss this tax deadline? You may now be faced with interest and penalties for tax due.
The failure-to-file penalty is 5 percent per month, or part of a month, of the balance due, up to a maximum of 25 percent. If the tax return is more than 60 days late, the minimum penalty is $135 or the balance due, whichever is less.
If you owe taxes on your return, it will save you money to file as soon as possible.
Please contact our office to assist you in filing your tax return.
Once again, we have come across another tax scam. These scammers are mailing forms that resemble California Property Tax assessment notices to California homeowners claiming they can perform re-assessments to reduce your property tax for hundreds of dollars in fees. Do not be fooled as these companies are not government agencies.
To read more: MSN ARTICLE ON TAX SCAM
Due to popular demand, we are hosting another FREE QuickBooks training seminar. Are you a new user of QuickBooks? Do you need help with your bookkeeping? Do you stress every year when it comes tax time to get your books in order? This seminar is for you. Topics we will cover:
- Registers
- Reconciling
- Invoicing
- Receiving payments
- Deposits
- and more!
Denny & Company, LLP is offering a free, three hour seminar at our offices in Valencia on January 21st, 2009, from 9am – 12pm. Hosted by our very own Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor.
Please contact Lisa Starr at our office to reserve your spot – 661-286-8860
One of our clients received an e-mail supposedly from the IRS — and it included two attachments; one a letter purporting to be from the IRS, and the other a form to be filled out and faxed back.
The letter reads, under a pretty silly looking IRS masthead:
Sir/Madam,
Our records indicate that you are a non-resident alien. As a result, you are exempted from United States of America Tax reporting and withholdings, on interest paid you on your account and other financial dealing to protect your exemption from tax on your account and other financial benefit in rectifying your exemption status.
Therefore, you are to authenticate the following by completing form W-4100B2, and return to us as soon as possible through the fax number: +1-646-731-6884.
If you are a USA Citizen and resident, please complete form W-4100B2 and fax it to us, please indicate “USA Citizen/Resident” on the form and return it to us.
When completing form W-4100B2, please follow the steps below
1. We need you to provide your permanent address if different from the current mailing address on your Form W-4100B2 , you must indicate if a non-USA resident, your country of origin to support your non-resident status (if your bank account or other financial dealing has a USA address for mailing purpose).
2. If any joint account holder are now USA residents or Citizen, or in any way subject to USA tax reporting laws, Please check the box in this section.
3. Please complete 1 through 19 and have all account holders, sign and date the form separately and fax it to the above-mentioned number.
Please, complete Form W-4100B2 ‘attached” and return to us within 1 (one) week from the receipt of this letter by faxing it, to enable us update your records immediately if your account or any other financial benefits are not rectified in a timely manner, it will be subject to USA tax reporting and back up withholding (if back up withholding applies, we are required to withhold 30% of the interest paid to you).
We appreciate your cooperation in helping us protect your exempt status and also update our records.
Sincerely,
Laura Stevens
IRS .Public Relations.
The thing I love about this letter is that it’s not written in American English. Americans don’t refer to USA taxes, ever — they are Federal taxes. They also don’t “rectify” situations, they correct them. The other attachment is the form, “W-4100B2″, is nothing more than an elaborate phishing exercise including asking for your mother’s maiden name, and a list of all bank accounts, account numbers, and a copy of your passport. They would then use this information to drain your bank accounts.
The IRS.gov web site recommends the following actions when you receive e-mail purporting to be from the Service:
How to Report and Identify Phishing, E-mail Scams and Bogus IRS Web Sites
The IRS does not initiate taxpayer communications through e-mail.
- The IRS does not request detailed personal information through e-mail.
- The IRS does not send e-mail requesting your PIN numbers, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial accounts.
If you receive an e-mail from someone claiming to be the IRS or directing you to an IRS site,
- Do not reply.
- Do not open any attachments. Attachments may contain malicious code that will infect your computer.
- Do not click on any links. If you clicked on links in a suspicious e-mail or phishing Web site and entered confidential information, visit our Identity Theft page.
How to report phishing, e-mail scams and bogus IRS Web sites
If you receive an e-mail or find a Web site you think is pretending to be the IRS,
-
Forward the e-mail or Web site URL to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov.
-
You can forward the message as received or provide the Internet header of the e-mail. The Internet header has additional information to help us locate the sender.
-
After you forward the e-mail or header information to us, delete the message.
How to identify phishing e-mail scams and bogus IRS Web sites
-
Sample of phishing e-mails
-
All IRS.gov Web page addresses begin with, http://www.irs.gov/
-
Are you a victim of Identity Theft?
-
Contact the Federal Trade Commission at 1-877-IDTHEFT (438-4338)
-
Visit the IRS Identity Theft resource page
-
You may also report misuse of the IRS name, logo, forms or other IRS property to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration toll-free at 1-800-366-4484.
Additional resources
-
OnGuardOnline.gov provides protection tips from the federal government and the technology industry.
-
IR-2006-49, IRS Establishes e-Mail Box for Taxpayers to Report Phony e-Mails.
-
You can also forward suspicious e-mails to the Federal Trade Commission at: spam@uce.gov or contact them at 1-877-IDTHEFT (438-4338).
