Posts

Tax Season Scams Bite Businesses

/in /by

There are numerous tax related scams out there. And as a business or even a consumer, forewarned is forearmed.

9DTax relief. Predators scan through tax lien notices to see who’s in deep with the IRS, then offer them tax relief services which are fraudulent. You pay them, and voila, your money not only is gone, but so is the “service.” You’re now further sunk in debt.

  • A fee, usually high, is required in advance.
  • These scams may be advertised on TV and radio.
  • They may also come as an unsolicited snail letter or e-mail, saying that you qualify for some governmental plan.
  • The company offering the solution may suddenly disappear.
  • If some kind of tax payment plan seems too good to be true, assume that it is.

IRS giving away money. When pigs fly. But really, this scam makes its rounds: flyers and ads claiming free money from Uncle Sam, suggesting you can file a return with minimal or no documentation. These postings often appear in churches. People see them and innocently spread the word.

Abuse of 501(c)(3). Numerous types of nonprofit organizations are exempt from certain kinds of federal income taxes. Some organizations will create schemes to become exempt, including ploys that fraudulently shield income from taxation.

Corporate ownership disguise. A third party is fraudulently used to request EIDs (employer identification numbers). The third parties then form corporations that muddle the business’s true ownership standing.

Trust misuse. Transferring assets into trusts may have some legitimacy, but shady promoters have also encouraged people to do this in an improper way. These transactions don’t live up to their promise of reducing taxable income or maximizing deductions for giving gifts or for personal expenses.

Inflated income & expenses. Though some businesses deflate income to lower what they owe, others will inflate it to optimize refundable credits. They may also claim expenses they never paid.

Hiding income offshore. Some people and businesses, to avoid paying taxes, hide income in offshore accounts. They use credit or debit cards, or wire transfers to gain access to their funds. Other people will use employee-leasing schemes, employ foreign trusts, or use insurance plans or private annuities to get access.

Fake forms. Someone files a false information return, like the Form 1099 Original Issue Discount, to validate a fake refund claim on a corresponding return. Some have made false claims for refunds based on the sham theory that the IRS has secret accounts for U.S. citizens and that one can gain access to these accounts with the 1099 OID form.

Ridiculous attempts at write-offs. Businesses claiming crazy, frivolous claims to avoid paying owed taxes like that business trip to Mardi Gras. The IRS will recognize many frivolous tax arguments and will toss them out of court.

Robert Siciliano is an Identity Theft Expert to AllClear ID. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Identity Was Stolen. See him knock’em dead in this identity theft prevention video. Disclosures

14 Busted In Tax Fraud Identity Theft

/in /by

Calling all identity thieves, stop wasting your time trying to open new credit card accounts or taking over existing credit card accounts, the money is in IRS tax related identity theft.

The IRS is struggling to keep up with all the fraudulent income tax returns coming in via US postal and online filings. Criminals are obtaining millions of Social Security numbers and filing under the victims personal information and collecting their refunds at an alarming rate.

Reuters reports “Fourteen people were arrested on Wednesday and charged with operating a long-running U.S. identity theft ring that filed thousands of fraudulent federal income tax returns to claim $65 million in illegal refunds, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Jersey.”

Criminals are filing thousands of fake returns using real peoples information and collecting millions. The U.S. Attorney was quoted saying “The defendants in this case allegedly tried to steal $65 million using stolen identities to obtain refunds to which they were not entitled.” But they still managed to get $11.3 million. Many of the refund checks were being sent to the same addresses.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reports over 2 billion dollars lost annually to tax related identity theft with victims doubling on 2011 to over 641,000. The Treasury also stated that $26 billion dollars could be lost in the next 5 years if the IRS doesn’t fix the problem. The problem stems from the IRS not being able to effectively determine if a return is being filed in good faith or fraudulently.

One way to determine if an online filing is legitimate is to check the reputation of the device issuing the tax return. If the PC, Mac, tablet or smartphone has a history of online criminal behavior or is exhibiting real-time suspicious behavior, the transaction could be flagged for review before the return is accepted or processed. By using advanced device reputation as the first check in the fraud detection process, the IRS would be able to stop many more fraudulent tax returns as well as downstream fraudulent activities.

Robert Siciliano, personal security and identity theft expert contributor to iovation, discussesidentity theft  in front of the National Speakers Association. (Disclosures)