Tax Scams - The Last Thing You Need
August 27, 2008
Life is complex enough without con artists trying to
separate you from your hard earned dollars. It can be
very costly if you become a victim of a scam that trades on
the image or the mission of the IRS. Everyone should
be vigilant in protecting personal, financial and tax
information.
The IRS has these tips to avoid falling prey to con artists.
Watch your personal and financial information very closely,
particularly during electronic transactions. The IRS is
among a growing group of government agencies and
corporations whose names and Web sites are being copied by
imposters posing as employees conducting official business
and seeking your personal information. Be aware that
the IRS does not use e-mail to initiate contact with
taxpayers about their accounts. Do not open links in
unsolicited messages claiming to come from the IRS.
Not all scams come by way of the Internet or email.
The telephone is a low-tech source of scams. Do not
give away personal information to callers claiming to be
from the IRS unless you have verified the caller’s identity.
You can confirm an IRS contact by calling 800-829-1040.
Thieves can use stolen personal data to access your
financial accounts, run up charges on credit cards or apply
for new loans. With a stolen identity a con-artist might try
to use your Social Security Number to intercept your refund
or falsify employment records, leaving the IRS with the
impression that you did not report all of your income.
Some con artists earn their living by preparing false, and
illegal, tax returns. Make certain that all of the
information on your tax return is accurate since you are
responsible for its content regardless of who prepares your
return.
Dishonest return preparers, promising unreasonably large
refunds, can cause many headaches for you. Such preparers
attract new clients by promising large refunds while
skimming a portion of the inflated refunds and charging high
fees for preparation services. Choose carefully when
you hire a tax preparer. As the saying goes, if it sounds
too good to be true, it probably is.
In contrast to shady tax preparers, some con artists openly
tell you that you do not have to pay taxes. Be wary of
anyone who encourages you to side-step your responsibility
to file an income tax return or to pay the proper amount of
tax due.
Some promoters make outlandish claims that taxes are not
legal, that wages are not income, that a voluntary tax
system means you can choose not to file or pay and that
income tax returns violate your protection against
self-incrimination or the right to privacy. Often
these promoters will use techniques that are strikingly
similar to any other con-artist to charge a high fee to
share their “secrets” with you. Such arguments are
false and have been repeatedly rejected by the courts.
You may end up paying for this mistake twice, first when you
pay for the bad advice and second when you are faced with a
higher tax bill plus penalties and interest.
For further information, see
:
|
