Pimping Isn’t Easy When the IRS is Watching You

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You usually hear about the IRS wielding its power to criminally prosecute tax offenders in those cases where the dollar amount involved is great or the notoriety from the case will make lawful taxpayers think twice before fudging the numbers on their tax returns. I was a little surprised when I read about Johnny Ray Taylor, who recently pled guilty to tax evasion in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas earlier this week, until I read-on.

At first glance, the headlines capture you about a panderer and pimp, needing to cut a deal with the IRS. How much could such a “profession” really bring in? Surely not enough to catch the attention of the IRS; wrong! According to Taylor’s plea agreement, he copped receiving gross income in excess of $230,000 for tax year 2010. Although he didn’t file tax returns for tax years 2008, 2009, and 2010, he agreed to pay restitution in the amount of $117,559.82 to the IRS for those tax years. He’s presently awaiting sentencing. I’m still curious as to how much money he really “earned” since he cut a deal admitting that he earned in excess of $230,000 for just one tax year alone.

IRS Scandal Heats up as Lerner Refuses to Testify

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It is normal for the IRS to be all over the news in April, but this year, heading into the last week of May, they remain the talk of the nation.  As you probably know, at the heart of the controversy is the IRS’ unfair targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.  Many top-level Internal Revenue Service officials are coming under fire for either failing to detect the practice earlier or for failing to timely report it to Congress.  Former IRS Commissioner, Doug Shulman, has said he didn’t know for sure what was going on.  Steven Miller, the man that replaced him, has also denied any wrongdoing, before being fired by President Obama last week.

Today Lois Lerner was called to testify before Congress but, following the advice of her attorney, plead the 5th and refused to testify.  Lerner is the individual considered to be directly in charge of the branch in Cincinnati that was running afoul of IRS procedures.

I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any congressional committee.

Because I am asserting my right not to testify, I know that some people will assume that I have done something wrong. I have not.

~ Lois Lerner, speaking before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

J. Russell George, the head of TIGTA (Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration) is also a target, and I think rightly so.  It has always bothered me that TIGTA’s audits, probes, and reports seem to be rather pointless, leaving it up to the IRS to agree or disagree with TIGTA recommendations.  If there was some kind of cover up, people are going to wonder about TIGTA’s involvement.

The next step appears to be appointment of a special prosecutor, which, in the eye of the public, may elevate things to the level of the Bill Clinton scandal and Watergate.  I don’t recall the last time the IRS was in the spotlight like this, much less involving something that could be called a “scandal.”  From the looks of it, it will be a while before they can go back to the processing of amended tax returns, and the bean counting, and whatever else they usually do this time of year.

IRS Closed Tomorrow – That Levy Release Will Have to Wait as the Potluck has Begun

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The Potlucks have begun in the bowels of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) today in celebration of what is essentially a four-day weekend.  The Tax Battalion notified you on April 22, 2013, of the news announced by the IRS on May 15, 2013, that they would be closed additional days due to federal budget woes.

The IRS closures are scheduled for May 24 (tomorrow), June 14, July 5, July 22 and Aug. 30, 2013. Each of these closure or furlough days are conveniently scheduled to coincide with a federal holiday, manufacturing a four-day weekend for those people who collect your taxes, but not for those who owe the taxes (this isn’t necessarily true, click to read more about IRS Employees Tax Debt).

Beginning (officially) tomorrow IRS operations will be closed. This means that all IRS offices, including all toll-free hotlines, the Taxpayer Advocate Service and the agency’s nearly 400 taxpayer assistance centers nationwide, will be closed. IRS employees will be furloughed without pay. No tax returns will be processed and no compliance-related activities will take place.

The IRS while firing up the BBQ noted, of course, that taxpayers should continue to file their returns and pay any taxes due as usual. However, since none of the furlough days are considered federal holidays, the shutdown will have no impact on any tax-filing deadlines. The IRS will be unable to accept or acknowledge receipt of electronically-filed returns on any day the agency is shut down. However, where the last day for responding to an IRS request falls on a furlough day, the taxpayer will have until the next business day. The short of it is, if you haven’t obtained that bank levy release yet, it’s not going to happen until the IRS returns to work with a suntan and a full belly on Tuesday, May 28, 2013.

IRS Tax Relief Issued in Oklahoma Tornado Zone

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Are you going to miss an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) deadline? You better have a good excuse! The IRS with all its fails is usually pretty good about recognizing a legitimate excuse for missing tax deadlines, so long as it applies to the masses. The two-mile wide tornado that caused so much carnage throughout Oklahoma on Monday, has been officially recognized as worthy for tax relief by the IRS.

After being officially declared as a disaster zone by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the IRS announced that affected taxpayers in Cleveland, Lincoln, McClain, Oklahoma and Pottawatomie counties will receive special tax relief. Other locations may be added in coming days based on additional damage assessments by FEMA.

Unlike the tax relief issued after the Boston Marathon Bombing which occurred on Tax Day (the deadline to file personal federal tax returns) the IRS deadlines to be missed are less common; but common nonetheless. Beginning on May 18, 2013, affected individuals and businesses will have until Sept. 30, 2013 to file any returns and pay any taxes due. This includes the June 17 and Sept. 16 deadlines for making estimated tax payments. A variety of business tax deadlines are also affected including the July 31 deadline for second quarter payroll and excise tax returns and the Sept. 3 deadline for truckers filing Form 2290 highway use tax returns. The IRS will abate any interest, late-payment or late-filing penalty that would otherwise apply.

Individuals and businesses who suffered uninsured or unreimbursed disaster-related losses can claim those losses on either last year’s tax return or this year’s return. Claiming these casualty loss deductions on either an original or amended 2012 return will get the taxpayer an earlier refund but waiting to claim them on a 2013 return could result in greater tax savings depending upon other income factors.

The Tornado Tax Relief will be automatically provided to any taxpayer located in the disaster area. However, taxpayers who live outside the disaster area but whose books, records or tax professional are located in the affected areas will need to contact the IRS at 866-562-5227 to obtain tax relief.

IRS Stat Interpretation

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I always find it interesting that when the IRS comes out with new statistics, they try to distort them ever so slightly to appear more in their favor.  Or the IRS will highlight one thing and downplay another.  Most of the time it’s hard to see what benefit they find in this.  Here is an example I found on the News & Events page of the IRS website that compares data from May 10, 2013 with data gathered at this time last year.

The article bears the title “More Taxpayers e-file from home in 2013,” which also happens to be the first distortion.  There are a number of statistics on this page, including the drop in number of refunds issued, the drop in refund dollar amounts, and the drop in total money refunded countrywide.  That’s a pretty important statistic, isn’t it?  And never mind the fact that the total number of tax returns received so far has dropped as well as the total number of tax returns that have been processed.  That kind of information could have made an equally relevant title, right?

And the most drastic percentage change (in this news release) from 2012 to 2013 was regarding irs.gov visits.  As of May last year, 255,269,615 people had accessed the IRS website looking for information about their individual tax questions.  This year that number climbed to 318,408,842.  That’s a 24.7 percent increase!  This was also a stat that the IRS liked because they flagged it and noted that “More people are using IRS.gov to get answers, file their returns and resolve issues.”  But are they really obtaining a positive result on the website?  This is the way I interpret the stat: the IRS can’t take many taxpayer calls because there is not enough money to hire the right number of personnel, so people have resorted to finding things on their own on irs.gov.

Fighting the IRS Alone? You May Have a Fool For a Client

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Nancy Cicero had a fool for a client in her fight with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); she represented herself. Rather than seeking the advice of a tax attorney with the tools and experience needed to successfully fight the IRS; she went it alone, saved a few bucks, and is now a felon awaiting sentencing.

Cicero was found guilty on four counts for illegally claiming more than $3 million in tax refunds on her tax returns for tax years 2005 – 2008. Each count of filing false claims with the IRS carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or fines up to $250,000.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, while self-represented, Cicero made no real opening statement or closing argument, and asked no questions of witnesses. When the judge would ask her if she wanted to object to the admission of evidence against her, she provided indecisive answers, such as, “I object. It is not my wish. Let the record show it is my wish.”

She should have wished for sound legal advice from her tax attorney. While saving a buck by representing yourself in a fight with the government is a legal right, common sense and Cicero’s predicament is proof positive that not all rights should be exercised. If you find yourself having to fight the IRS, don’t fight them alone, the tax attorneys at Montgomery & Wetenkamp are available to take your call and offer a free consultation.

IRS Scandal: Damage is Done

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As we learn more about the recent IRS scandal, it appears that it was not limited to low-level employees in Cincinnati.  Top IRS officials in Washington may have known what was going on as far back 2011.  Although the president has promised a full investigation into the matter, much of the damage has already been done.  An alleged criminal who successfully defends himself in court is still sullied by the criminal trial itself.  Likewise, even if the IRS is successful in explaining away some of the accusations of political bias, there are many individual taxpayers who will have already lost faith in the IRS.

When people ask me about interacting with the IRS, I tend to speak very bluntly about the adversarial relationship; that the IRS is not on their side in looking for tax relief and that their one goal is to collect as much money from them as legally possible.  However, I stop short of saying that the IRS will cheat people out of the money they have earned or that they will treat some groups or people differently, even though I know for sure that it’s not out of the question.  No doubt this scandal raises some serious questions for the average taxpayer:

“If high-level IRS administrators will not deal fairly and neutrally with all taxpayers, or will turn a blind eye to bias, then why couldn’t it just as easily (or even more easily) happen with regard to my own individual taxes?” 

“If the IRS will not administer the tax laws fairly and neutrally, then why am I even paying?”

You’re not paranoid if you think you’re being targeted by the IRS for tax purposes.

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According to CBS and Reuters, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) is expected to publish an investigative report this week detailing that Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents specifically targeted conservative groups for review and consideration of their tax exempt status.

According to Reuters, director of exempt organizations for the IRS, Lois Lerner apologized Friday for what she called the “inappropriate” targeting of conservative groups for closer scrutiny, something the agency had long denied. She said the screening practice was confined to an IRS office in Cincinnati; that it was “absolutely not” influenced by the Obama administration; and that none of the targeted groups were denied tax-free status.

The TIGTA findings detail that the names and purposes of groups were used to scrutinize applications. Name scrutiny included organizations such as Tea Party, Patriot, and 9/12. Scrutiny was also being improperly given to references to government spending, government debt, taxes, education of the public via advocacy/lobbying to make America a better place to live; and statements that criticize how the country is being run.

IRS employees are presently prohibited from targeting anyone for their political or religious beliefs. However, under current law such conduct would only be grounds for termination. Wasting no time to ride the coattails of a juicy scandal, Congressman Mike Turner of Ohio already unveiled a bill to make such actions a felony. Considering that nobody seems to know anything in these types of cases, and that the portions of the report available so far appears to be no different, it will be interesting if anyone is ever prosecuted criminally if the bill were to pass.

Is Your Online Imprint Going to Trigger an IRS Audit?

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In mid-April I noticed a rather innocuous news release on the IRS website in regards to some type of email policy. If it wasn’t so cryptic and fraught with legal positioning, I would probably have considered it with the same drab spun by the IRS press cycle on a daily basis. However, the statement was so obtuse, it required at least a Google search or two to decipher the precipitous for the need to publically proclaim their position on email surveillance.

Here’s the IRS statement from April 18, 2013:

“Where the IRS already has an active criminal investigation and seeks to obtain the content of emails from an Internet Service Provider, we obtain a court ordered search warrant. It is not the IRS policy to seek the content of emails from ISPs in civil cases. Respecting taxpayer rights and taxpayer privacy are cornerstone principles for the IRS. Our job is to administer the nation’s tax laws, and we do so in a way that follows the law and treats taxpayers with respect. However, to resolve any remaining confusion surrounding this issue, the IRS is reviewing its policy and guidance and will make appropriate updates.”

I don’t have a crystal ball or a microphone in the IRS headquarters, but I believe the precipitous for the statement was damage control based on numerous news stories circulating recently that the IRS was beginning to use more than the standard tax disclosures to catch you in a tax lie. It was reported that the IRS was acquiring personal information on taxpayers’ online activities, from eBay auctions, Facebook posts, credit card transaction records, and e-payment transaction records, to verify the information reported (or not reported) on your tax return.

It was reported that the new online surveillance policy was precipitated because the IRS is under heavy pressure to help the federal government out of its budget crisis by chasing down revenue lost to evasions and errors each year. According to Edward Zelinsky, a professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and Yale Law School. “I am sure people will be concerned about the use of personal information on databases in government, and those concerns are well-taken. It’s appropriate to watch it carefully. There should be safeguards.” He adds that taxpayers should know that whatever people do and say electronically can and will be used against them in IRS enforcement. Be warned.

It is alleged that the IRS is going a step beyond law enforcement agencies that use openly displayed social media information such as twitter, facebook, and instagram to prove illegal activity by asserting there is no right to privacy in personal correspondence via email, facebook chats, twitters direct messages, and similar non-public online communications.

According to a blog post by Nathan Wessler on the ACLU’s blog, even though judges are holding that people’s emails are private communications (most notably in United States v. Warshak, a 2010 decision from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals), the IRS is going its own way on the matter, claiming that Americans have no privacy rights in any correspondence sent via the internet, so that the IRS has no obligation to get search warrants. It was the policy of the IRS to read people’s email without getting a warrant. Not only that, but the IRS believed that the Fourth Amendment did not apply to email at all. A 2009 “Search Warrant Handbook” from the IRS Criminal Tax Division’s Office of Chief Counsel baldly asserts that “the Fourth Amendment does not protect communications held in electronic storage, such as email messages stored on a server, because internet users do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such communications.” Again in 2010, a presentation by the IRS Office of Chief Counsel asserts that the “4th Amendment Does Not Protect Emails Stored on Server” and there is “No Privacy Expectation” in those emails.

I suppose the end result for me on this issue is the portion of the statement that reads: “It is not the IRS policy to seek the content of emails from ISPs in civil cases.” In my dealings with the IRS in non-criminal cases, policy has no president or consideration in a collection case. Therefore, you should consider your online footprint a fishbowl for IRS audit fodder.

Singer Lauryn Hill is Going to Prison for Tax Crimes

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Looks like our girl Lauryn Hill is going to spend some time in prison for her tax crimes.  She pleaded guilty last year to failing to pay taxes on about $2.3 million during a 5-year period.

Here’s a breakdown of what tax fraud got her.  She’ll have to:

  1. Pay what she owes to the IRS ($1,006,517)
  2. Pay a $60,000 fine
  3. Three months in federal prison
  4. Three month house arrest with electronic monitoring
  5. One year of supervised release

Hill says she recently cut a deal with Sony, but I wonder how the creative juices are going to flow staring at the inside of a prison cell for 3 months and then being stuck inside for another 3 months.  She will probably be allowed to work while serving her home confinement term, but may be given a curfew and restriction on travel.

I hope Hill does release new music and I hope she makes a lot of money so she can pay her tax debt.  Based on the public comments I have seen, she does not appear to harbor any bitterness or anger against the government.  But with any luck, maybe we’ll hear tax themes and undertones in her new music.  That would be nice.