Internal Revenue Service

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IRS May Cut 401(k) Contribution Limit

(Newser) - Low inflation could force the IRS to decrease the amount workers can contribute to their 401(k) plans to $16,000, USA Today reports. It would mark the first time the government has ever lowered contribution limits. Though a spokesperson says it’s too early for speculation, the IRS may not...

Tax Revenue Takes Biggest Dive Since Great Depression

(Newser) - US tax revenue is set to shrink 18% from last fiscal year to the current one, ending in October—the largest falloff since 1932, the AP reports. Individual income-tax receipts are off 22%, and corporate revenues have sunk an astounding 57%. “Our tax system is already inadequate to support...

Tax Cheats Flood IRS, Looking to Come Clean

Inquiry into Swiss banks leads hundreds of evaders to come clean

(Newser) - A crackdown on tax evasion has led to a flood of wealthy Americans lining up to reveal their offshore accounts to the IRS, reports the Wall Street Journal. A limited-time offer of lower fines, coupled with the ongoing probe of Swiss bank accounts held by UBS, has produced a stampede...

NJ Mayors, NY Rabbis Busted in Corruption Probe

Syrian Jews accused of money-laundering

(Newser) - In a huge corruption bust, FBI agents arrested 30 people today, including the mayors of Hoboken and Secaucus, the deputy mayor of Jersey City, a New Jersey assemblyman, and several Brooklyn and New Jersey rabbis, the Star-Ledger reports. The arrests stem from a 2-year money-laundering probe centered on New York’...

Nev. Newspaper Defends Commenters' Anonymity

Review-Journal , ACLU fight subpoena for commenters' identities

(Newser) - A tax-evasion trial has sparked a free-speech controversy at the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The paper has declined to honor a federal subpoena demanding the identities of everyone who commented on an article on the trial. Businessman Robert Kahre faces tax-fraud charges for hiding the real value of sales of gold...

UBS Refuses to Hand Over Names of US Tax Cheats

Bank charges IRS is trying to trample on Swiss laws

(Newser) - Swiss bank UBS has rejected a demand from the IRS that it cough up the names of 52,000 suspected American tax evaders, the Times of London reports. The bank—which paid out $780 million to avoid prosecution for helping rich Americans dodge their taxes—said the lawsuit by the...

Cash-Strapped IRS Slashes Evasion Penalty

(Newser) - In an effort to increase revenue, the Internal Revenue Service is relaxing penalties on offshore tax evaders in hopes they will come forward, the New York Times reports. A penalty that was 50% of offshore holdings will drop as low as 5%. “They need to get money back into...

IRS Challenges AIG's Offshore Tax Deals

(Newser) - The IRS is challenging a series of tax-skirting deals engineered by the much-maligned AIG Financial Products unit, the Wall Street Journal reports. The deals exploited differences in international tax codes to reduce tax payments for foreign banks—many of the same banks the US government would later pay to settle...

5 Tax Scams: Do They Work?
 5 Tax Scams: 
 Do They Work? 
Mar 20, 2009 6:34 PM CDT

5 Tax Scams: Do They Work?

(Newser) - Cheating the IRS is illegal and dumb. That said, Details asked attorney Kelly Phillips Erb—who keeps a blog that welcomes cheaters—to evaluate a few of the more popular scams. "I find their logic interesting," Erb says.
  • Hide Your Gambling Winnings: Doable, but a score of
...

AIG Sues US Over Tax Payments

(Newser) - Even as Washington rails against AIG’s bonus giveaway, the insurer is quietly suing the government for $306 million in tax payments, the New York Times reports. AIG’s case hinges largely on its use of offshore tax havens, including one entity that handles executive compensation. It also says it...

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...

Swiss Bank Will Give Names of US Tax Dodgers

(Newser) - Switzerland's biggest bank admitted today that it helped wealthy US customers evade their taxes, the Wall Street Journal reports. UBS set up shell companies and fake trusts for customers so they could hide their accounts from the IRS. The company will pay $780 million in fines and turn over the...

As US Cracks Swiss Secrets, UBS Clients Cop to IRS

Tax evaders taking agency's amnesty deal rather than risk being caught

(Newser) - The IRS is getting an unexpected boon from a Justice Department probe of Swiss bank UBS: Some of its wealthy US clients are owning up to offshore accounts to take advantage of the agency’s amnesty offer, the Wall Street Journal reports—a blow to the secrecy that has made...

Paulson Slipped Banks Quiet $140B Tax Break

Reversal of 20-year-old tax law allows banks to shelter profits

(Newser) - While Congress and the nation were busy debating the $700 billion bailout package in late September, Treasury issued a five-sentence notice that could reap banks up to $140 billion in tax breaks, the Washington Post reports. The provision reverses an obscure policy written into law more than 20 years ago...

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...

Feds Battle UBS to Give Up Tax Dodgers

Swiss bank pressed for names of US customers

(Newser) - The Justice Department is pressing UBS for the names of suspected tax dodgers with secret bank accounts in Switzerland, the New York Times reports. Federal authorities believe the Swiss bank may have helped up to 20,000 Americans stash $20 billion in offshore accounts, evading hundreds of millions in taxes....

Illegal Immigration Spurs Identity Theft
Illegal Immigration
Spurs Identity Theft
ANALYSIS
May 18, 2008 6:15 PM CDT

Illegal Immigration Spurs Identity Theft

But many federal agencies aren't doing enough, City Journal says

(Newser) - Identity theft and illegal immigration are not only keeping cops busy, they're often linked, Steven Malanga writes in City Journal. Illegals are known to swipe US workers' data to obtain jobs or commit crimes, and the top five states for identity theft have large immigrant populations. But efforts to stop...

No Rebates for Immigrant Taxpayers—or Yank Spouses

Caught in rules designed to cut illegal immigrants

(Newser) - Hundreds of thousands of legal, taxpaying immigrants and their Americans spouses are among the unhappy few who won’t be getting a tax rebate check, AP reports. Taxpayers need a Social Security number to qualify—a rule intended to carve out illegal immigrants. Also inadvertently cut from the benefit are...

Will Tax Rebates Boost Economy? Test Starts Today

The government has begun sending out the first cash

(Newser) - The first tax rebates designed to kick-start the economy should begin arriving in bank accounts today. The Treasury Department has begun sending electronic rebates to nearly 8 million people by the end of this week, and some 130 million checks will go out via snail mail in May. President Bush...

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