At the climax of the 1979 film, “When A Stranger Calls,” the family babysitter, played by Carol Kane, is advised by the police that the terrorizing calls she’s receiving are coming from inside the house. While thinking about that scene, I couldn’t help but wonder about the IRS and its recent problems. What if the…
It turns out that scammers aren’t just targeting taxpayers: tax professionals are on their radars, too. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has warned tax professionals to use caution after reports of bogus emails started making the rounds. In the latest scheme, tax professionals are sent a bogus email with instructions to update their IRS e-services…
Claiming bogus tax refunds can be easy. After all, nobody’s looking, right? Wrong. The IRS is cracking down on tax evasion by targeting unscrupulous tax preparers. And they might be headed for your town – they’re already making waves in mine. Last week, the United States asked a federal court to bar three Philadelphia-area tax…
There is no such thing as free money. Let’s just go ahead and get that out of the way first thing. Our Treasury does not have a pot of money just sitting around waiting for you to scoop it up (we’re nearly bankrupt, remember?) And no matter what anybody tells you otherwise, tax credits, refunds…
With just a few weeks to go before Tax Day, it seems that tax scams aren’t slowing down. A Jacksonville, FL, news station has reported the arrest of George Graycochea on a charge of organized fraud. Graycochea allegedly advertised on Craigslist for tax preparation services. Since I’ve never seen any ads on Craigslist for tax…
As I’ve posted before on taxgirl.com, the IRS does not send unsolicited e-mails to taxpayers. If you receive an e-mail purporting to be from the IRS, it’s likely a scam. Be careful. Most of these scams try to get you to reveal your personal or financial information. Do not reveal any of this information via…
The IRS will never ask for information from you via an unsolicited email. Never. Ever. It’s important to keep this in mind. There has been a recent increase in scam emails claiming to be from IRS in an effort to obtain personal and financial information that could be used in identity theft cases. Many of…
