Your Money

“In this time of great upheaval in our nation’s history, find peace in the things that remain constant—one of them being that someone will always try to use taxes to steal money.”

That’s an excerpt from an article written by Jeff Stimpson — he is referring to how “creative” some people get around tax time.

Offshore accounts
Every year IRS provides a list of the most commonly used tax scams.
As “usual” the wealthy are still hiding their money in offshore accounts.
(IRS is making some progress in this area; in the last 8 years almost $10 billion have been collected through Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Programs.)

Plain old stupidity
Next are the tax refunds. And how scammers use certain tools to get bigger and bigger refunds.
IRS receives refund claims, “based on bogus theory that the federal government maintains secret accounts for U.S. citizens and that taxpayers can gain access to the accounts by issuing 1099-OID forms.”

Stimpson concludes with:
Maybe we can add to the list of tools “plain old stupidity.”

Fluffy and Fido
(This one is my favorite : )
Many taxpayers keep trying to deduct Fluffy’s food; and Fido’s grooming. After all cats and dogs are part of the family.
And expenses should be deductible, right?
(Yes, there are exceptions but 9 out of 10 that’s not a deductible expense.)

If a taxpayer insists on filing a return with this type of expenses it can be costly.
$5,000 is the penalty for filing what IRS considers a “frivolous tax return.”
(IRS has no sense of humor, obviously.)

Mariana Fieraru

Mariana Fieraru, an Eastern European transplant, fell in love with her new home shortly after landing in New York. She "discovered" pizza! Years later she still loves pizza. And so do her two feathered-kids, Sunny and Flipper

Mariana worked on both, the east and the west coast.
Big or small, each project she worked on helped define the importance of gaining and sustaining a competitive edge in an increasingly complex business environment.

Business know-how, love of teaching and writing – all combined in 2006 to form OBI.
Its mission: to make learning fun! And easy.

Through its training, consulting, and publications OBI builds bridges of knowledge to take you from where you are to
where you want to go. Using a mix of serious, informal, analytical, and optimistic approach, OBI truly makes learning fun.

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