The federal Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, commonly known as FATCA, is a 2013 law that empowers the IRS to pursue taxpayers suspected of failing to disclose assets in foreign bank and investment accounts. The idea is that these individuals and businesses are defrauding the IRS by hiding these funds so that they can claim […]

An IRS audit can seem like it came out of the blue. “Why me?” is a common question for individuals and businesses facing federal scrutiny into their income tax returns. The IRS has several ways of selecting the tax returns it chooses to audit. These include: Computer scoring.Returns get screened by computer software called the […]

Even if he or she does his or her best to be careful, a business owner in Washington, D.C. may someday find themselves accused by the IRS of employment tax evasion. The agency is aggressive in pursuing businesses it accuses of failing to pay the appropriate amount of employment tax. According to the IRS, there […]

Getting a phone call from the IRS can be scary. If the person on the other end of the line tells you that you owe thousands in back income taxes and must pay now, it may seem like you have no choice. Don’t be fooled. The person you are talking to is not an IRS […]

You get the notice that no taxpayer wants to see: you are being audited by the IRS. This would be distressing news for anybody. It is understandable if the word “audit” conjures up visions of a long, complicated process with an expensive tax bill at the end. Maybe this happened because of a misunderstanding or […]

If a tax dispute with the IRS reaches the point that you or the agency must file suit to resolve it, the litigation could end up in one of several different courts. In fact, there are four different federal courts that potentially could have jurisdiction over your tax case. Though the balance of power between […]

Having to deal with the Internal Revenue Service on your own is probably something that you really don’t relish. When you are dealing with the IRS because of a criminal investigation, the horror of dealing with the government tax agency alone is amplified. It is at that point that keeping your interests secured and knowing […]

The government pursues tax revenues with the relentlessness of a pack of bloodhounds. Even an honest tax mistake can come back to haunt you years later in an audit, and the IRS can follow up on a willful omission or failure for even longer. But for just how long do you have to worry about […]

The IRS has recently been cracking down on corporate entities that try to dodge taxes by moving assets offshore. But a new IRS ruling opened the door to a different kind of tax savings vehicle that some corporations may find to be a better alternative. A real estate investment trust, known as an REIT for […]

There is no doubt that tax evasion can be severely punished. If you are lucky, a tax evasion conviction will result in only fines and penalties. If you are unlikely, it could mean time behind bars. In a recent tax evasion case involving two brothers, the Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to send a […]