5 Tax Scams: Do They Work?

Accountants and tax lawyers share tips for beating Uncle Sam

(NEWSER) - So the New York Times is offering tips for tax cheaters. Guess we know which newspaper will be audited next—but for now, let's take advantage of the paper's survey of 20 tax lawyers, accountants, and policy wonks:

• The easiest way to cheat is ... running your own company—or, more specifically, being the sole proprietor of a Schedule C business. Such tax filers write off tons of personal expenses and payments to family members (even to "infant children," says one CPA).

Company going 'gangbusters,' boasts CEO

(NEWSER) - Hard times elsewhere haven't done any damage to Google's bottom line. The company has announced a whopping 26% year-on-year jump in profits for the third quarter of this year, with net income of $2.73 billion on nearly $10 billion revenue, most of it from advertising, the BBC reports. "The word that springs to mind is 'gangbusters,'" CEO Larry Page boasted, hailing Google+ as a success—although one senior engineer has a different opinion . More»

Let's cool the hatred before someone else gets killed

(NEWSER) - Watch coverage of the Tax Day rallies and you'll no doubt hear all about the evil IRS and the "jack-booted thugs" who work there. It's way past time to stop the demagoguery, writes EJ Dionne. Anyone remember the nut who flew his plane into IRS offices in Austin in February and killed an innocent man? "We should call this propaganda what it is: a sweeping falsehood that libels the work of committed federal employees," writes Dionne at the Washington Post . More»

(NEWSER) - In an effort to increase revenue, the Internal Revenue Service is relaxing penalties on offshore tax evaders in hopes they will come forward, the New York Times reports. A penalty that was 50% of offshore holdings will drop as low as 5%. “They need to get money back into the system,” an insider said, “so they needed to sweeten the deal.” More»

Tax evaders taking agency's amnesty deal rather than risk being caught

(NEWSER) - The IRS is getting an unexpected boon from a Justice Department probe of Swiss bank UBS: Some of its wealthy US clients are owning up to offshore accounts to take advantage of the agency’s amnesty offer, the Wall Street Journal reports—a blow to the secrecy that has made Swiss banks a haven for would-be tax evaders. More»