Thousands Come Clean as IRS Gets $2.7 Billion

The Internal Revenue Service has taken in a total of $2.7 billion from holders of offshore bank accounts, the agency said as it announced that 12,000 taxpayers responded to the second round of a partial amnesty program. IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman said yesterday that the agency’s emphasis on international tax enforcement prompted more people than anticipated to accept penalties and reveal … Read More

Debt collector erroneously garnishes OC lawmaker’s wages

You'd think if you were about to garnish the wages of a state lawmaker you'd do everything you could to ensure you had the right guy. So imagine State Sen. Lou Correa's surprise when he received notice at his State Capitol office last month that his earnings were being seized to pay off a debt owed by man with a different address and social security number. The order delivered to the Office … Read More

It’s Not Too Late For IRS Amnesty

It’s not too late to enter the IRS 2011 Offshore Voluntary Disclosure Initiative (or OVDI). The program runs through August 31, 2011, offering what IRS Commissioner Shulman called the “last, best chance” to come clean. The IRS’s 2009 offshore disclosure program netted about 15,000 taxpayers. See IRS Sets Offshore Amnesty, Part II. Since then, 3,000 more came in under the IRS’s one-off system of … Read More

Two Louisiana Women Sued for Tax Fraud Scam

The Department of Justice recently filed a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in an attempt to bar two women from preparing federal tax returns for others. The civil injunction, filed in the Eastern District of Louisiana, alleges that Cathy Vinnett, and her daughter, Lashanda Vinnett, both of Destrehan, La., prepared federal tax returns for their customers and claimed fraudulent tax refunds, … Read More