No, no Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine or Charles Bronson here. It’s the IRS’ annual Dirty Dozen: tax schemes to avoid. The top schemes to avoid for 2007 (the list for 2006 is here), many of which have already been noted on this site, are:
1. Telephone Excise Tax Refund Abuses.
2. Abusive Roth IRAs (specifically methods of shifting under-valued property to Roth IRAs to skirt contribution limits and avoid reporting taxable income).
3. Phishing.
4. Disguised Corporate Ownership (setting up shell corporations for the purpose of disguising the ownership of the business or financial activity).
5. Zero Wages (submitting a “corrected” Form 1099 showing zero or little income).
7. American Indian Employment Credit (no such credit exists for employees).
8. Trust Misuse.
9. Structured Entity Credits (setting up partnerships to own and sell state conservation easement credits, federal rehabilitation credits and other credits.
10. Abuse of Charitable Organizations and Deductions.
11. Form 843 Tax Abatement.
12. Frivolous Arguments. Also see this recent decision .
