Online Taxes News Links for 7-25-13

Lots of news in taxes today, if you want your news posted here or you have some tax advice, please send me a message, a comment, or on our twitter account.

Japan Seen Needing $50 Billion to Cushion Sales-Tax Rise

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, now sitting on the biggest parliamentary majority in six years, faces the threat of political dissent within months as a planned sales-tax rise threatens to arrest an economic rebound. The world's third-largest ...

 

Louisiana To Offer 'Fresh Start' Tax Amnesty Program

That's how many of my tax compliance clients feel. They never start out to get behind on their taxes. It usually starts with a little delay ? maybe an illness or a personal issue. And then the delay gets bigger. And bigger. And at some point, the ...

 

Fraternities Lobby for Tax Break Without Hazing Penalties

Besides pushing the tax bill, FratPAC, as the Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee calls itself on its Twitter page, has helped dissuade U.S. Representative Frederica Wilson from filing federal anti-hazing legislation. Wilson, a Democrat ...

 

Dell Considered Novel Tax Strategy in Buyout

Joshua Lott/ReutersDell rejected a structure that would have deemed the company a partnership for United States tax purposes. In the proposed buyout of Dell by its founder, the company considered but rejected as too risky a novel strategy that tweaks ...

IRS pursuing 'stateless income' tax enforcement: official

... Internal Revenue Service is pursuing tax enforcement cases against companies over the issue of "stateless income," a senior agency official said on Wednesday in a reference to corporate profits that are not taxed by any country. Erik Corwin, an IRS ...

 

Internal Revenue Service scandal ties to Obama appointee

Internal Revenue Service scandal ties to Obama appointee. Posted: July 23, 2013 - 4:15pm. Advertisement. Does anyone recall when the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) scandal broke? Fingers were pointed at some rebel agents in the Cincinnati office.

 

US court blocks Internal Revenue Service's bid to help Indian IT

MUMBAI: The US Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) efforts to help Indian tax authorities uncover fincancial information of a US resident, alleged to have evaded tax in India, have hit a road block. A US district court has recently quashed summons issued ...

 

Courtney Love In the Hole With the IRS, Owes $260K in Back Taxes

The Hole singer reportedly owes the Internal Revenue Service more than $260,000 in unpaid back taxes. According to TMZ, the IRS filed a tax lien against Love on July 11, claiming that America's Sweetheart needs to settle outstanding debts from 2009 and ...

5 from Passaic charged in $2.5M tax refund scam

Perpetrators of such refund scams typically use Social Security numbers and other personal identifying information obtained from unwitting residents of Puerto Rico because they are not required to pay income tax unless they work for U.S.-based ...

 

IRS, States Call on IBM, LexisNexis, SAS to Fight Tax Fraud

A Miami law-office employee admitted in February he had accessed his firm's LexisNexis account and stolen thousands of Social Security numbers of prison inmates?prime targets for tax-fraud identity theft because they are unlikely to file returns?and ...

 

Florida's 'First Lady' of tax refund fraud gets 21 years in prison after ...

Those involved in the tax fraud operation used stolen Social Security numbers to file returns, according to the Global Dispatch. The scam meant that ordinary taxpayers had to wait for up to a year to receive their refunds. Rashia Wilson. Sentenced ...

 

IRS to Biz Owners: Beware of Payroll Tax Scammers

IRS to Biz Owners: Beware of Payroll Tax Scammers The Internal Revenue Service wants owners of small businesses ? and just about any sized business ? to watch out for unscrupulous third-party providers who are entrusted with collecting and timely ...

Sales Tax Changes and Taxability Issues Prompt New Industry Tax Gateway on ...

Internet sales tax is a hot topic these days, but unfortunately, sales tax changes and product taxability challenges are not new to most businesses, especially those in industries with particularly complex or rapidly changing sales tax regulations ...

 

Still plenty of time to seek homestead exemption before property-tax changes

Franklin County residents now have until the end of the year to apply for a homestead tax exemption, before qualifications change under the new state-budget law, the auditor's office said this week. The deadline was extended from June 3 to Dec. 31 to ...

 

City Leaders Debate Arts Tax Changes

Portland City Council weighed options Wednesday for altering the city's arts tax. Voters last November approved a $35 per household tax supporting arts education and arts organizations. The tax is subject to several legal challenges, but the city's ...

 

Pennsylvania Enacts "Delaware Loophole" Closer And Other Significant Tax ...

The new law reduces the tax rate from 1.25% to 0.89% and changes the tax base by including only bank equity capital, not total equity capital as under present law. Further, three-factor apportionment based on a bank's payroll, receipts, and deposits is ...

McCrory signs new tax law

Gov. Pat McCrory, flanked by members of the N.C. General Assembly including Speaker of the House Thom Tillis, right, jokes before he signs the HB 998 for Tax Reform in the ballroom at the Executive Mansion in Raleigh, N.C. on Tuesday, July 23, 2013.

 

Weigh in on state tax law

Sen. Galen Hadley, the chairman of the Tax Modernization Committee, announced on Tuesday that several public meetings will be held around the state to discuss the possibility. Those meetings include a Sept. 24 date at North Platte Community College ...

 

CJEU: Danish Exit Taxation Is Contrary To EU Law

In its judgment of 18 July 2013 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) held that the Danish rules on exit taxation of cross-border transfers of assets within a company are contrary to EU law. New Danish legislation must be expected ...

 

Debate: How should tax law change?

Baucus says any tax break that survives his initial cut has to help grow the economy, make the tax code fairer, or effectively promote an important policy objective. Although the last of these might be too broad, Baucus' approach is the best, and ... 

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Beware scammers and their buzzwords

Source: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/technology/beware-scammers-and-their-buzzwords/story-fn7bsi21-1226561171821

BEWARE tweets about Barack Obama, the Australian Open and gun control this month - internet security experts say they're the top three buzzwords currently being used by cyber criminals to lure victims on social media. 
 
And keep an eye out for posts mentioning the Super Bowl, Playstation 4 and The Ashes, topics predicted to be popular with canny cyber crims throughout 2013.

Research by tech security firm Trend Micro Australia has revealed this month's most popular keywords used by online scammers, who use them to make their tweeted links to malware and hacking sites seem legitimate.

Trend Micro cyber safety expert Aman Chand said big news events such as President Obama's inauguration and the tennis, which are widely discussed on social media, were easy targets for criminals to latch onto.

"Without a doubt, Christmas or any other widely celebrated sporting event such as The State of Origin, for example, will always be a favourite cybercriminal bait,'' he said.

Mr Chand said criminals used the buzzwords to disguise links to dangerous websites as links to news stories or funny videos.

"As well as inflicting the fear factor into Australians, cybercriminals are using smart tactics such as social media posts, fake mobile apps and harmful news videos to lure in their victims,'' he said.

Popular keywords in 2012 included "Whitney Houston'', "Instagram'', "Angry Birds'' and "Olympics''.

2013 BUZZWORD PREDICTIONS
Super Bowl
X-Box 720
Playstation 4
The Ashes
Lions Tour
Click Frenzy
Christmas2012

POPULAR BUZZWORDS
Whitney Houston
Tax Season
Law
Enforcement
Temple Run
Jeremy Lin
Instagram
Android
Angry Birds
London 2012, Olympics
Tibet
Diablo 3
Space
iPhone 5
World of Warcraft
Obama
Christmas
Windows 8
Thanksgiving
Black Friday Sale
Cyber Monday Sale
Holiday
Bad Piggies

Scammers, The IRS Wants You

Source: http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130114/NEWS03/130119624

CONCORD - Unlike most taxpayers, Richard Lavers is excited about the advent of tax season.

As counsel to the state Division of Employment Security, he's looking forward to the millions of dollars the state is going to collect from people who filed fraudulent unemployment claims, now that the federal government can garnish their U.S. tax refund on behalf of New Hampshire.

On Oct. 1, New Hampshire became the 19th state (including the District of Columbia) to qualify for the Treasury Offset Program for Unemployment Insurance Compensation Debts, in which the collection arm of the IRS grabs tax return money to offset debts owed to state or federal agencies before the balance, if any, gets sent to the taxpayer.

In just the first three months of participation, New Hampshire collected $57,000, according to Lavers. "That number is small in comparison to what we hope to receive during the course of the 2013 tax season, but was higher than what we expected," he said.

This is the second full tax year of the program. States participating in the first year on average got 20 percent of what they referred for collection. New Hampshire expects to submit close to $12 million for collection, and hopes to get $2.3 million to $2.5 million in redirected tax refunds to bolster the unemployment trust fund.

The threat of garnishing a tax refund can be as effective as the garnishment itself, said Lavers. Of the $57,000 the state collected in the fourth quarter of 2012, only $20,000 came through garnishment. The other $37,000 was collected on the threat of a garnishment, he said.

"Some of this debt is older debt that in past years perhaps would have been looked at as uncollectable because individuals were long gone, or we just couldn't locate them," Lavers said. "But now, with this tool, we are confident in our ability to find you and your refund regardless of where you are filing from."

The "you" Lavers is talking about are people who scam the unemployment insurance program by continuing to collect after they find a job.

"These are individuals who fail to report earnings while they are collecting unemployment benefits," he said. "We are trying to protect the integrity of the program and the balance of the unemployment compensation trust fund."

Quarterly wage review

The Division of Employment Security gets quarterly wage information from every employer in the state, and receives notification of every new hire. That information is cross-matched with unemployment claims so it's almost impossible to successfully double-dip outside the underground economy. But thousands of people try.

"They do it for one week, don't get a phone call or notice in the mail, and figure they got away with it," Lavers said. If people start collecting fraudulently at the beginning of the quarterly review cycle, the amount can really add up before they get caught.

As deputy assistant commissioner for debt management services in the U.S. Treasury Department, Ronda Kent is one of the nation's top debt collectors. She and her associates would like to see more states participate in the tax refund collection program, and expects to see more come on board in the months ahead.

The program as it currently exists was authorized by Congress in 2010 and implemented by the Treasury Department in 2011, in cooperation with the Department of Labor. States have to meet rigorous requirements to qualify and often have to pay for computer system upgrades to connect with Treasury Department computers.

"But the payback has been very good," Kent said. "For fiscal year 2011, we collected $25.9 million; in fiscal year 2012, we collected $133 million." New York, one of the first states to come on board in 2011, had collected $30 million in fraudulent unemployment claims as of Nov. 30.

States have to certify that the debt is valid and delinquent. The debtor has to get 60 days notice, must be given an opportunity to dispute the debt and must be offered a repayment plan.

"Of course we send a notice to the debtor explaining why they didn't get their tax refund, and we have a call center," said Kent. The call center can be reached at (800) 304-3107.

Having had some experience with the program in the slower fourth quarter, Lavers feels New Hampshire is ready to cash in as the busiest season for tax refunds draws near.

"People get refunds all year, but the vast majority of them arrive in late January through February, March and April," he said. "We worked throughout 2012 to gain approvals for participation and were able to work out the kinks in the process when it wasn't that busy, so we're very excited about what we're projecting for the 2013 tax season."

dsolomon@unionleader.com

These posts are for informational use only to educate people about their online income taxes and the financial world around them. If you found this helpful, share the original article or this one, and help spread the word! With tax season rapidly approaching let us get you the best income tax return you can possibly have by e-filing! Leave us a comment if you want to give your opinion.

Visit our site: http://www.onlinetaxpros.com

And our blog: http://www.onlinetaxprofessionals.blogspot.com

Please like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/onlinetaxpros

and follow us on Twitter: @onlinetaxpros