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

IRS ‘innocent spouse’ rules can be tough

When Valarie Stephenson tried to leave her husband in 2003, he put a gun to her head and threatened to kill her. She was so terrified that she remained in the marriage until 2007, when a friend — who noticed the bruises on her body — helped her escape to her mother's home in Phoenix. Stephenson then contacted an attorney and filed for divorce. After the divorce was finalized in 2008, Stephenson … Read More

Debt Collector Is Told It Can’t Use Facebook

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A Florida judge has ordered a debt collection agency to not use Facebook or any other social media site in an attempt to locate a woman over a $362 unpaid car loan. Judge W. Douglas Baird also ordered Mark One Financial of Jacksonville, Fla., to refrain from contacting the woman's family or friends on Facebook. The order is part of a lawsuit that Melanie Beacham … Read More