Over the past week there’s been some interesting stories posted around the tax Blogosphere:
The IRS posted a page titled “Keeping Good Records Reduces Stress at Tax Time.” I cannot stress this enough. If you have good records (especailly good records that corroborate your tax return), an audit may be annoying, time consuming, and a pain. That said, you will likely survive it just fine. Without those records, you should expect to be writing a check.
Joe Kristan and the Federal Tax Crimes Blog both spotlighted the IRS creating a new group to look at “…wealthy taxpayers who use offshore arrangements for tax evasion..” It’s pretty clear to those of us in the tax profession field that you really need to declare those foreign bank and financial accounts by September 23rd. If you’ve been hiding money from the IRS for a number of years, I’ll echo what Joe said: “Folks pondering whether to own up to their offshore accounts need to get in touch with their lawyers quickly. Three weeks isn’t a long time.”
Jerry Koosman was sentenced to six months at ClubFed. Had he not admitted that he was duped by tax protesters, the sentence would likely have been far longer. Joe Kristan has more.