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Enron Whistleblower Finally Gets His Sweet Reward

More than 10 years later, he collects $1.1M from IRS

(Newser) - Two years before Enron’s 2001 implosion, a whistleblower tipped off the IRS to the company’s abusive tax shelters and fictitious income. Now that whistleblower is finally getting his reward, to the tune of $1.1 million from the IRS, the Washington Post reports. He remains anonymous, but his...

Tax Deadline April 18 Thanks to ... Abraham Lincoln?

DC Emancipation Day pushes filing deadline 3 days

(Newser) - America's taxpayers have an extra three days to procrastinate this year, thanks to a holiday only celebrated in the nation's capital, AP reports. Abraham Lincoln freed the District of Columbia's slaves on April 16, 1862—eight months before the Emancipation Proclamation—and since this year's DC Emancipation Day falls on...

Another Temporary Budget Strains Federal Agencies

SEC can't hire; foreign aid money blocked; no end in sight

(Newser) - Because Democrats and Republicans are at loggerheads on spending, Congress had to approve yet another stopgap budget measure yesterday to keep the government running through March. While federal agencies avoided a shutdown, they've got to keep operating at last year's spending levels, a development that amounts to a budget cut...

Obama Should Scrap the Current Tax Code
Obama Should Scrap the Current Tax Code
David Brooks

Obama Should Scrap the Current Tax Code

David Brooks: Starting over might actually unite both parties

(Newser) - Barack Obama shouldn’t worry about tweaking the current tax system—he should try to replace it, writes David Brooks of the New York Times . In Brooks’ vision, Obama would go before the American people and end the Bush tax cut debate. “I have my own views,” he...

IRS Has Info on Abducted Kids—But Can't Divulge

Privacy laws prevent agency from giving up data from returns

(Newser) - IRS tax returns could probably help reunite hundreds of kids a year with their rightful parent, bur privacy laws forbid the agency from helping investigators. As the New York Times explains, even people who abduct kids in custody disputes sometimes take the odd step of declaring them on their returns....

Time for Big Business to Squash Tea Party

Corporate America must battle extremism

(Newser) - Big business may see the Tea Party as harmless, or perhaps even helpful, but it's time to “take a closer look:" the movement’s aspirations aren’t in its interests, writes Robert Reich in the Christian Science Monitor . Some 60% of Tea Partiers want, for example, to dump...

IRS to Broke Spanish Hipster: You Owe $172M

Esparza Bofill somehow racked up that bill in less than a year in NYC

(Newser) - The IRS says Marcos Esparza Bofill owes them $172 million in back taxes—which is pretty hard to believe, given that Esparza is a broke Spanish musician who recently had to borrow money from his relatives to pay his bills. The tax lien, which you can see on The Smoking...

Total Drag: Medical Pot Isn't Tax Deductible

(Newser) - After a little bit of confusion—thanks to a vaguely worded letter from the IRS on the use of an "herb"—it was re-confirmed marijuana is not eligible for deduction on citizens' personal tax returns. Even in states where it can be legally prescribed by a doctor. Read...

Wyclef Jean Owes IRS $2.1M
 Wyclef Jean Owes IRS $2.1M 
hang on, haiti

Wyclef Jean Owes IRS $2.1M

Singer the subject of 3 federal tax liens

(Newser) - Wyclef Jean may be gearing up for a run for Haiti's presidency, but he has to square some matters with the IRS first—the singer owes $2.1 million in federal taxes, the Smoking Gun reports. The IRS has filed 3 liens against him since 2006, and they're not Jean's...

Wesley Snipes Heading to Prison

Appeals panel upholds 3-year sentence on tax charges

(Newser) - A federal appeals panel has upheld a three-year prison sentence on federal tax charges for film star Wesley Snipes. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta concluded that the judge properly sentenced Snipes, who was convicted in 2008 of three counts of willful failure to file his returns. His...

Inmates Got $9.1M in 'Homebuyer' Tax Credits

IRS working to recoup money

(Newser) - Almost 1,300 prisoners, including 241 serving life sentences, filed for the Obama administration’s First Time Homebuyer Credit on their taxes, claiming they’d bought homes while incarcerated, according to a Treasury Department report released today. The IRS paid out $9.1 million on those claims, money it now...

Tea Partier's Trippy Ad Calls for Revolution

'Gather your armies,' Washington declares

(Newser) - Think the Tea Party rhetoric is getting a little overwrought? Then get a load of this video from Alabama House candidate Rick Barber, in which he has a kind of war council with various founding fathers. Barber calls for President Obama’s impeachment, then launches a mostly nonsensical rant about...

Anti-IRS Diatribes Are Stupid and Dangerous

Let's cool the hatred before someone else gets killed

(Newser) - Watch coverage of the Tax Day rallies and you'll no doubt hear all about the evil IRS and the "jack-booted thugs" who work there. It's way past time to stop the demagoguery, writes EJ Dionne. Anyone remember the nut who flew his plane into IRS offices in Austin in...

Joe Stack's Daughter Retracts 'Hero' Remark
Joe Stack's Daughter Retracts 'Hero' Remark
UPDATED

Joe Stack's Daughter Retracts 'Hero' Remark

Though man killed by Texas suicide pilot was

(Newser) - The woman whose father crashed his plane into a Texas IRS office in a suicide statement about big government backed away this afternoon from her characterization earlier in the day of Joe Stack as a “hero.” Samantha Bell, 38, called ABC to say that, in fact, Stack is...

'Easygoing' Austin Pilot Presumed Dead

One office worker remains unaccounted for

(Newser) - The man accused of flying his small plane into IRS offices in Austin today is described as "easygoing" by a friend. “He talked politics like everyone but didn’t show any obsession,” says Pam Parker, who managed a band that Andrew Joseph Stack played in as recently...

IRS Cracking Down on Tax Preparers

Preparers to be required to register, pass exam

(Newser) - The IRS has unveiled plans to regulate America's tax-preparation industry for the first time. Independent tax preparers and employees of tax-preparation firms will be required to register, pass a competency exam, and take 15 hours of classes a year. The move follows an IRS study that found many of the...

Citi Wins Massive Tax Break
 Citi Wins Massive Tax Break 
UPDATED

Citi Wins Massive Tax Break

Firm will use dodged fed taxes to repay fed bailout bucks

(Newser) - The government will be collecting billions of dollars less in taxes from Citigroup as part of Citigroup's deal to pay back federal bailout money. The IRS has granted an exemption from tax rules relating to Citigroup and other companies partially owned by the government. The future taxes being forfeited will...

15K Yanks Turn Selves in for Offshore Tax Cheating

Asia joins Switzerland as hotspot for hidden assets

(Newser) - Prodded by the stick of a looming crackdown on offshore tax cheats and the carrot of an IRS amnesty program, some 14,700 rich Americans have turned themselves in, disclosing billions in hidden foreign assets. The "unprecedented" participation in the amnesty program surprised the IRS and advisers to the...

Millions Must Repay Part of Stimulus Tax Credit

Withholding errors mean 15.4M will get smaller refund or owe money

(Newser) - An IRS tax credit designed to lighten the load on recession-addled taxpayers won't work out as well as hoped for about 15.4 million Americans. Because certain minutiae of the new Making Work Pay credit weren’t factored in to withholding tables, more than 10% of taxpayers who file individual...

Tax Collectors Use MySpace, Google to Find Deadbeats

Public profiles can provide valuable income information for revenue agents

(Newser) - Internet-savvy state tax collectors are using a new tool in tracking down evaders: social networking websites. Tax collectors are taking advantage of the fact that an individual’s MySpace or Facebook profile often contains quite a bit of professional information, the Wall Street Journal reports. Agents in Nebraska, for example,...

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