IRS

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Ponzi Victims Will Be Tax Nightmare for IRS

Service expects to refund $7-$10 billion in taxes paid on fake income

(Newser) - The work of fraudsters such as Bernie Madoff and R. Allen Stanford will complicate the IRS’ job as tens of the thousands of victims attempt to reclaim taxes paid on income that went up in smoke, Time reports. The IRS estimates that refunds due victims to Madoff alone could total...

Obama Trade Nominee Has Tax Snafu, Amends Returns

(Newser) - Ron Kirk, President Obama’s nominee for US trade representative, has some tax problems of his own, Reuters reports today, with the Senate Finance Committee estimating a liability of about $10,000; Kirk has already moved to correct the errors. The majority stem from speaking funds he passed directly to...

US Demands UBS Cough Up 50K Tax Cheat Clients

Swiss bank stunned by number in court filing

(Newser) - The Justice Department has stunned UBS with a demand for the names of 52,000 clients believed to be American tax dodgers, reports the Wall Street Journal. The Swiss bank had expected to be asked for 20,000 names, but a court filing yesterday stated that an IRS investigator had...

UBS Closes 19,000 US Accounts in IRS Probe

Swiss banking secrecy collapses as investors face tax evasion charges

(Newser) - Under pressure from the IRS, Swiss banking giant UBS is closing the offshore accounts of about 19,000 Americans suspected of evading taxes. UBS will transfer the clients' assets to other banks, other divisions of UBS, or the account holders themselves—creating a paper trail that the feds can examine....

IRS Notice Stuns Lawyer: 'You Owe Us a Penny'

(Newser) - Washington may be loaning billions to automakers, but a Detroit lawyer? He has to pay an IRS bill of 5 cents, the Detroit Free Press reports. James Howarth was busy tallying the cost of paying his debt—which is "several hundred percent over the nickel," he said—...

Clerics to Defy IRS, Endorse Candidates From Pulpit

Ministers aim to test constitutionality of ban

(Newser) - Pastors from 22 states plan to purposely defy the IRS this Sunday by endorsing presidential candidates in their sermons, the LA Times reports. The so-called “pulpit initiative” aims to trigger a legal showdown, testing the constitutionality of the law forbidding such endorsements by tax-exempt groups. “There is nobody...

IRS Loosens Deadlines For Taxpayers Pummeled by Ike

Fall dates for filing and tax payments pushed back to Jan. in Texas, La.

(Newser) - Taxpayers in Texas counties and Louisiana parishes hit by Hurricane Ike will get until Jan. 5 to take care of tax filings and payments due this fall, the Internal Revenue Service said today. The IRS said the deadline extensions apply to 29 Texas counties and 14 Louisiana parishes declared presidential...

Firms Gamble Pensions to Fund Exec Perks

Rank-and-file benefits may be at risk as companies use tax loophole

(Newser) - Companies from CenturyTel to Intel are funneling pension benefits to retired executives at the expense of workers, using a practice that potentially violates tax rules and puts pension plans at risk, reports the Wall Street Journal. Hundreds of millions of dollars in long-term benefits pegged for executives are draining plans...

UBS: No More Swiss Cheese for US Clients

Bank under scrutiny for aiding tax evasion apologizes, shuts door

(Newser) - A UBS executive told a Senate probe today the bank will no longer host accounts for US clients, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Swiss bank is under investigation by the IRS for marketing tax-evasion strategies involving its offshore accounts to wealthy Americans. The Senate panel estimates that the US...

Judge Orders UBS to Cough Up Clients' Names
Judge Orders UBS to Cough Up Clients' Names
UPDATED

Judge Orders UBS to Cough Up Clients' Names

Ruling a blow to Swiss bank, anonymous customers

(Newser) - UBS must share the names of account holders with prosecutors investigating tax-evasion allegations against the Swiss bank's clients, a federal judge ruled this afternoon. Whether the bank would comply or appeal wasn't known, but UBS said in a statement it "looks forward to working with the IRS to address...

Millions Skip Filing for Stimulus

IRS struggling to keep up

(Newser) - Roughly 5 million people who qualify for a stimulus check could be out of luck because they haven't filed a tax return, CNN reports, and the IRS is scrambling to let them know. These un-stimulated masses consist mostly of seniors and veterans who don’t normally file returns. “I...

Salty Senate Candidates Heating Up Alaska
Salty Senate Candidates Heating Up Alaska
ANALYSIS

Salty Senate Candidates Heating Up Alaska

GOP incumbent Ted Stevens has a rough-and-tumble challenge in Mark Begich

(Newser) - A sweltering Senate contest looks likely to warm up Alaska come November, Katherine Rizzo writes in the Wall Street Journal, as “cantankerous bully” and 40-year incumbent Ted Stevens faces the mayor of Anchorage in what’s already a mudfest. Democrat Mark Begich has reminded voters of Stevens’ convict friends...

Sleight of Hand Has IRS After Billionaire

Anschutz owes $143M on gains, feds say; he claims technicality

(Newser) - The IRS is going after the US’ 41st-richest man, the Wall Street Journal reports, as part of a larger move to curtail one method of skirting capital-gains taxes. Philip Anshutz owes $143.6 million in back taxes on a “variable prepaid forward contract” deal he made in 2000 and...

UBS Case May Reveal Secrets of the Rich

Swiss bank considers divulging names of 20,000 US clients

(Newser) - The Swiss bank UBS built itself into a financial powerhouse on the strength of its private wealth management division, in which discreet bankers tended to the fortunes of the world's elite. But a major American tax evasion probe may lead UBS to do what was once unthinkable: divulge its secrets....

IRS Employees Charged With Sneaking Into Records

Internal audit nabs five in Calif. office; ties to snooped-on taxpayers uncertain

(Newser) - Five employees at a California branch of the Internal Revenue Service have been charged with illegally inspecting citizens’ tax information, ComputerWorld reports. Exactly whom the workers were snooping on was not disclosed, but there were up to 13 victims, all in 2006. Court dates on misdemeanor charges are pending for...

Bush Sees Rebate Checks Offsetting 'Slowdown'

Stimulus package hits home(s) next week

(Newser) - Again steering clear of the R-word, President Bush said today that the tax rebates scheduled to be distributed starting next week will "give our economy a boost to help us pull out of this economic slowdown," Bloomberg reports.

Obama Earns $3.9M in Royalties
 Obama Earns $3.9M in Royalties 

Obama Earns $3.9M in Royalties

His book sales continue to soar

(Newser) - Barack and Michelle Obama earned $4.2 million last year, mostly from royalties from Obama's two books, Dreams From My Father and the Audacity of Hope. The Obamas' newly released returns for 2007 show they paid $1.4 million in federal taxes and gave $240,370 to charity, USA Today...

TurboTax Tries to Avoid '07 Filing Nightmare
TurboTax Tries to Avoid '07 Filing Nightmare
Tax Day

TurboTax Tries to Avoid '07 Filing Nightmare

No error messages this time around, Intuit promises

(Newser) - It’s April 15 again, and perhaps nobody has their fingers crossed quite like Intuit software. A year ago 170,000 people rushed to file last-minute tax returns online through TurboTax… only to get an error message, delaying their filings for up to 13 hours. This year, Intuit’s done...

Cops Arrest 160 at Iraq Protests
 Cops Arrest 160 at Iraq Protests 

Cops Arrest 160 at Iraq Protests

Demonstrations staged across the US on war's anniversary

(Newser) - Police arrested more than 160 protesters today at demonstrations across the US to  mark the fifth anniversary of the launch of the Iraq war, Reuters reports. More than 100 were arrested in San Francisco alone, where demonstrators staged a "die-in" and disrupted busy Market Street. About 30 were arrested...

Routine IRS Checks Exposed Spitzer
Routine IRS Checks
Exposed Spitzer

Routine IRS Checks Exposed Spitzer

Bank transactions made investigators suspicious

(Newser) - The inquiry that uncovered New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's alleged assignations with high-priced hookers began in a decidedly unglamorous IRS office in Long Island, reports the New York Times. There, investigators were poring over suspicious bank transactions when they noticed the governor was apparently trying to conceal the transfer of...

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