BP Holdings Tax Management, Balley Price Holdings: How I Dodged a Phony IRS Tax Scam

One morning last week when I answered the phone, a woman at the other end of the line told me she was with the IRS and that I was being investigated. My immediate reaction was panic. But as the caller started telling me why I supposedly was in trouble, I quickly realized that scammers -- not the IRS -- were targeting me.

Before I recount the conversation, let me emphasize that the best course of action to take when a scammer calls is to hang up. Period. I stayed on the line out of professional curiosity. I hoped to gain more insight into the nature of the con that I could share with Kiplinger readers -- and I did. Here's how I recognized the scam.

The woman on the phone told me that a variety of charges were being filed against me for failing to pay taxes and attempting to defraud the IRS. She asked if I had a criminal attorney to represent me. "No," I answered. Then she said I owed $4,000. None of what she was saying added up, but it was easy to see how her accusations and efforts at intimidation could rattle many an unsuspecting taxpayer.

I was fortunate because I knew that what the woman was saying sounded familiar to a scam I had written about in November 2013, IRS Warns of a New Phone Scam. The IRS had issued a warning that scammers were calling people, telling them that they owed money and threatening that they would be arrested if they didn't pay. To resolve the issue, victims typically were being told to pay the money owed to the IRS through a pre-loaded debit card or a wire transfer. But the scammer didn't get that far with me.

From past run-of-the-mill dealings with the IRS and articles I've written for Kiplinger, I knew that the IRS initiates contact with taxpayers by mail, not by phone. And I knew that if I truly were being audited, the process would have begun with a letter and that I would've been asked to supply the IRS with records. I certainly wouldn't be charged with anything before actually having an opportunity to make a case for any questionable items on a tax return.

So I asked the woman if the IRS had attempted to contact me by mail. She said it had. I followed up by asking to what address letters had been sent. She rattled off my former address. When I told her that wasn't my current address and that I had received other correspondence recently from the IRS (tax forms, not audit notifications) at my current address, she hung up.

I felt victorious but realized how easily someone without my knowledge of tax scams could have been duped. Tax fraud often tops the Federal Trade Commission's list of biggest identity-theft complaints. And the IRS sees countless scams meant to trick taxpayers into revealing personal information.

That's why it's important to be aware of tell-tale signs of IRS-related scams:

Callers claiming to be IRS agents. As I mentioned above, the IRS initiates contact with taxpayers by mail, not by phone. If you get a call from someone claiming to be with the IRS, don't reveal any personal information or credit-card information because the IRS doesn't ask for payments over the phone. Instead, hang up and call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040 to see if an agent has a legitimate need to contact you.

Unsolicited e-mails from the IRS. Not only will the IRS not initiate contact with taxpayers by phone, but also it won't use e-mail, text messages or social media. So do not reply to unsolicited e-mails or messages supposedly from the IRS, open any attachments (which could contain viruses) or click on any links (which could take you to a fraudulent Web site). Forward all suspect e-mails to phishing@irs.gov.

By Cameron Huddleston

Beware of tax refund scam

An email scam that claims you are getting a refund from Revenue Canada had callers swamping an RCMP anti-fraud hotline Thursday.

“The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre is presently inundated with the Revenue Canada email scam,” said a recorded message Thursday.

The message warned to “please stay vigilant and delete this email ASAP.”

An email received by a Windsor Star reporter Thursday suggested she was eligible to receive a refund of $651.44. It had a logo with a red maple leaf that said Agence du Revenu du Canada. It gave a link to update personal information within three days.

The Canada Revenue Agency has warned that it does not request personal information of any kind from a taxpayer by email, won’t leave any personal information on an answering machine and would not give taxpayer information to another person without formal authorization from the taxpayer. It also warns that it only sends payments by direct deposit or a cheque and never by an email money transfer.

“Taxpayers may receive, either by telephone, mail or email, a communication that claims to be from the Canada Revenue Agency but it is NOT,” says a notice warning people to beware of fraudulent communications.

The scams or phishing attempts want personal information such as social insurance numbers, credit card or bank account information and passport numbers so people can supposedly receive a refund or benefit payment and the scam may link to a website that resembles Revenue Canada’s website, the agency said. Taxpayers should not respond to these “fraudulent communications.”

In a bulletin on tax scams, the anti-fraud centre said the scams either suggest you have a pending refund or you or your company owe back taxes and need to pay up through a money service businesses or prepaid debit/credit cards to avoid a fine.

The anti-fraud centre said do not take immediate action. You could call Revenue Canada to see if you have a refund or owe back taxes. Some tips to spot such scams include asking yourself why you are being asked to include information that would not be on your tax return or why the Canada Revenue Agency would ask for personal information that it would already have on file.

If you gave personal information through the link in the email, call 1-888-495-8501 or visit http://www.antifraudcentre.ca. The anti-fraud centre also suggests contacting local police for fraud related matters.

The Canada Revenue Agency has examples of fraudulent letters and emails on its website at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca and you can read more information about tax management at BP Holdings Tax Management.

BP Holdings Tax Management: Financial Tips that turn into Savings

Personal finance tips: Purchases that turn into savings, and more

Three top piece of financial advice — from building a college fund to protecting yourself from cybercrime

Purchases that turn into savings

Sometimes you have to spend money to make money, says Meg Favreau at U.S. News & World Report. While frugal shoppers might fret over purchases, some can actually save money in the long run. If you live in an area where it's feasible to forgo a car, buying a bike or transit pass will save thousands in car expenses each year. And with monthly cable bills averaging around $123, a one-time investment in a TV-streaming device like Apple TV, Roku, or Amazon Fire can add up to thousands in annual savings. For caffeine addicts, an espresso machine is a smart buy. While one "can cost anywhere between $100 and $1,200," the initial investment will pay off down the road. Just think: "If you buy a $4 latte 250 days of the year, that's $1, 000," and you still won't have coffee on weekends.

How to build a college fund

If you're planning to send a child to college someday, start saving now, says Dan Caplinger at Daily Finance. One of the best tools for building a college fund is a tax-advantaged 529 plan, which allows you to put away cash "on a tax-deferred basis, meaning that even if the investments you select pay interest, dividends, or other forms of income, you won't have an immediate tax bill." And if the money pays for educational expenses — tuition, fees, or housing — even the withdrawals are tax-exempt. Contribution limits vary from state to state, but most 529 plans have caps of between $235,000 and $400,000. That's enough to "give most families all the flexibility they need to save for their children's college education."

Protect yourself from cybercrime

Your PIN isn't the only number you need to keep safe, says Adam Levin at Credit.com. These days, data breaches are a "certainty in life." But credit card numbers, email addresses, and passwords aren't the only things hackers are "gunning for." Phone numbers, significant dates — like birthdays and graduation dates — Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, and even IP addresses can all be exploited by identity thieves. The best defense is to avoid posting sensitive data online whenever possible. But as cybercrime becomes a fact of life, "the smartest thing you can do is assume the worst" and be vigilant about monitoring your accounts, bank statements, and credit reports for signs of fraud.

For more Information just visit Balley Price Holdings

BP Holdings Tax Management: 3 Tips For Tax Attys To Avoid Jail Time

Balley Price Holdings - Although it may be too late for Paul Daugerdas, the former Jenkens & Gilchrist PC boss who was sentenced to prison on Wednesday for orchestrating the largest known tax fraud scheme in American history, other attorneys can still take precautions to ensure they don't find the same fate.

Daugerdas was sentenced to serve 15 years in prison for his role as the mastermind behind the $7 billion scheme, which certified tax law specialist Sanford Millar said was clearly designed to be illegal.

"The simple axiom is 'don't be a crook,'" he told Law360. "What we had is clearly criminal conduct on the part of Daugerdas, who is not only cheating the Internal Revenue Service but is also cheating his partners. The guy was just a bad man, so when you begin with the premise that people are willing to engage in criminal conduct, there's nothing that needs to be stated besides 'don't be a crook,' other than 'don’t get caught.'"

Prosecutors say Daugerdas created and implemented four tax shelters for wealthy clients that resulted in over $7 billion worth of fraudulent tax deductions or benefits. He personally reaped $95 million from the scheme, according to the government.

In addition to the prison time, U.S. District Judge William Pauley III also ordered Daugerdas to pay $164.7 million in forfeiture and $371 million in restitution. Prosecutors had requested a punishment of at least 20 years in prison, while Daugerdas argued he should serve no more than 30 months.

Daugerdas began his career at accounting firm Arthur Andersen LLP in 1975. He worked there as a tax partner until 1994, when he was forced to resign amid concerns that he had secretly diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees to himself, prosecutors said.

Whether you're running an office like Daugerdas or just learning the ropes as a summer associate, lawyers and professors told Law360 that tax attorneys can take some simple precautions to help avoid trouble.

o   Mind Your Fee Structure

In tort cases, it is common for attorneys to bill their clients based on how much money they are able to recover. For tax help, however, the arrangement might occur a bit too often.

"There's all this talk of moving away from the hourly fee," said Robert Rosen, who teaches professional responsibility at the University of Miami School of Law. "In these arrangements, Jenkens was paid a percentage of the profits made by the client. That aligns the incentives of the client with the incentives of Jenkens."

The problem with that alignment is that it leads to a lack of independence, Rosen says, which opens the door for a potentially illegal decision.

But regardless of fee, Millar says that a lawyer with a specific tax scheme needs to find some ethical way to cover the research and development costs.

"Contingencies themselves are not inherently evil," said Millar, who practices in Los Angeles. "The question is whether they're reasonable. To state that one species of contingency fee is evil and the other isn't is an academic exercise."

o   Don't Bank on Reputation

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, tax shelters were very crude, said Brooklyn Law School professor Steven Dean, who used to practice at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP. Much has changed from the days of a few doctors buying a hotel at an inflated price for the tax break.

"It was very silly in a way, very '70s. The recent tax shelters like this one, you have Nobel Prize winners and big, fancy law firms that are involved in these transactions, and they still lose," he said. "I think there was a time when people had enough degrees or had a plush enough office, they couldn't lose."

Dean said that times have changed, largely because the courts hear these cases with an increased level of skepticism. Judges no longer take a taxpayer's word for granted, so the taxpayer's lawyer shouldn't either.

"Here we have a very fancy, pedigreed taxpayers and lawyers involved in a transaction that turns out to be categorized as a tax shelter," Dean said. "The key takeaway from this recent wave of tax shelters is that pedigree is no defense."

o   Beware the Black Box

In a black box agreement, the client agrees to keep any dealings with the lawyer confidential, turning the one-way confidentiality agreement between attorney and client into a bilateral deal.

"One thing a professional should know is that any remedy where you can't describe how it works is dangerous," Rosen said. "A young attorney who sees that's what their bosses are doing, that should be a marker that something is going on. There are no secret ways to engage in tax savings except ones that are questionable, and that's what went on during this period at Jenkens."

In and of itself, a confidentiality agreement can be suggestive of a conspiracy, Millar said.

"I would counsel against those devices," he said. "They not only have the optics to be terrible, but if sought to be enforced would prove to be unenforceable and conceivably the subject of an uncovered malpractice claim, being an intentional act to engage in a conspiracy to commit a crime."

BP Holdings Tax Management, Balley Price Holdings: IRS makes it easier to get tax-deductible donations

It's hard to argue against tax simplification, but the Internal Revenue Service might have made it too easy for people and groups to set up tax-exempt charities.

On Tuesday, the IRS announced a streamlined form that small charities can begin using immediately to apply for 501(c)(3) status, which exempts them from paying taxes and lets them accept tax-deductible contributions.

The new Form 1023-EZ is three pages long, compared with 12 pages (plus individualized schedules) for the existing Form 1023. Most organizations with gross receipts of $50,000 or less and assets of $250,000 or less can use the short form. Certain types of organizations, including schools and hospitals, cannot use it. The IRS estimates that up to 70 percent of applicants will qualify to use the new form.

The long form requires charities to provide three or four years worth of detailed financial data and attach numerous documents, such as their articles of incorporation and a narrative describing their activities.

The short form requires no financial details and merely asks applicants to check boxes saying they have certain documents rather than providing them.

"It's almost like you are filling out a library card" application, said Tim Delaney, president and chief executive of the National Council of Nonprofits.

The council has been urging the IRS to review and streamline the long form. But the short form goes "too far too fast, representing radical departures from proven protocols," it said in a letter to the Office of Management and Budget.

Public trust

The group worries the short form will reduce public trust in charities by letting unqualified groups slip through the cracks.

"People who are working as telemarketers can file easy paperwork, go waltzing through this loophole, and the IRS will never know because the IRS is not requiring anyone to submit any backup paperwork," Delaney said.

Many state charity regulators also opposed the short form.

In a previous survey, state regulators "uniformly believed that collecting less information in the initial application for tax exemption on an assumption that an organization that begins small will remain small invites abuse and results in overall regulatory inefficiency," the National Association of State Charity Officials said in a letter to the budget office.

While the form "clearly needs to be redesigned and streamlined," it also serves an "important educational purpose," the letter said. It forces an organization to think deeply about its "activities, finances and management" and better understand the "comprehensive regulatory regime" it is about to enter. The association said the educational benefits "are especially important for small organizations. And we do not belive that a significantly shorter Form 1023 could provide a comparable level of these benefits."

States are also concerned that they will face an increased regulatory burden. "If the IRS is doing less screening, it will fall to the states," says Eric Gorovitz, a principal with San Francisco law firm Adler Colvin, which specializes in nonprofits.

State charity regulators, most of whom are attorneys general, are supposed to make sure that donations are used as intended.

State tax authorities also rely on the IRS. If it issues a determination letter that exempts a charity from federal taxes, the California Franchise Tax Board will exempt it from state taxes as well.

The federal exemption "used to be backed by all this review," Gorovitz said. "One concern is that (states) might lose confidence in the meaning of the federal determination letter."

Regulators and charity groups say the IRS created the new form without seeking their input. When an attorney discovered the form in a filing with the budget office and circulated it, the IRS listened to comments and agreed to make some changes. It lowered the gross receipts threshold to $50,000 from $200,000 in its original form, which reduced the number of charities eligible to use the short form.

Balley Price Holdings Management: Used to be that paying lower tax was considered commendable for it ended up reducing burden on state – Today, it’s more like an insult

Ponder this: About 80% of above 50 years of ages will get lower than £155 weekly. It was inevitable that some will win and some will lose when the fresh flat-rate weekly state pension of £155 was applied.

The Government had vowed it would not cost the nation more than that. Hence, if several individuals will end up getting much more than the present state payout of £113.10, surely the extra money would have to come from other sources.

But the announcement has been consistently clear: Anyone who has paid the amount required by the National Insurance of 35 years of contributions will receive a weekly pension of £155. However, our evaluation of the small print on the new flat-rate has shown this to be untrue.

About 80% of over-50-year-old citizens who have faithfully paid their regular National Contributions all their life will end up receiving below £155 each week.

Why? Because at a certain time they were in a final-salary program and were contracted out of the State Second Pension — a plan that permitted employees to jack-up their state retirement payout. Since they chose out of these extra payments, workers were allowed to pay a lower rate of National Insurance contributions of 10.6% and not 12%.

The justification from the present Government is that these workers should not receive or claim the new higher basic state retirement pay for having paid lower tax then. This is in spite of the fact that, in the present administration, they would have been eligible for the full amount of basic state pension.

It certainly is a frustrating development for many. How can the Government expect people to become responsible retirement planners if at this late period retirees are unsure as to how much they will actually receive?

And that does not take into account the complication that will ensue when the inflation-related increases in guaranteed minimum retirement income will be removed. For many years, the Government has covered these increases; but it has now turned around by saying that it was only a misunderstanding, not a firm commitment.

However, many official declarations have shown that this is not really the case. The latest official reports state that the Department for Work and Pensions is correcting this history — and extricating these files from the Parliamentary archives.

A rather cunning way of denying a pension vow: Pretend it never really happened. These amendments to the national pension are an unfair decision to impose upon hopeful people who will be disenfranchised of their dreams during their expected life of retirement.

So complex is the equation that even the Department for Work and Pensions is not certain what contracted-out employees will receive.

Moreover, people are being punished for a judgment they took twenty or thirty years ago — a step which, in general, was done by someone else, since many company final-salary plans involuntarily contracted workers out of the state second pension.

Looking in from the outside, it appears just to decrease the payments of those who have not contributed the entire rate of National Insurance. But this is not a case of getting something for nothing. By opting to pay the lower rate, they were surrendering their right to receive the state second pension.

It used to be that paying lower tax then was considered commendable for it ended up reducing burden on the state. Today, however, it is more like an insult. And you could end up being penalised.

Balley Price Holdings:Tips for NRIs for filing tax returns│BP Holdings Tax Management

The income earned by non-resident Indians abroad is not subject to tax in India. However, if their income in the country crosses the basic exemption limit of Rs 2 lakh, they are required to file their returns. This income could be in the form of interest on deposits, rental income on property in India, etc.

Also, if NRIs carry out transactions in securities like shares and mutual funds, the capital gains are liable to tax and, hence, the return must be filed. The due date for filing returns by NRIs is 31 July.

When to file

The returns have to be filed if the income exceeds the taxable limit, or to claim refund if the tax deducted at source is more than the tax payable, or to claim the amount set off against capital losses.

Documents

The documents to be submitted include the passport to show the number of days spent outside India to qualify as an NRI. Besides this, the NRIs need to provide the statements for the demat accounts, for the transactions and bank accounts held in India, as well as the TDS certificates received from other parties.

Exemptions

The NRIs can also claim exemptions available to individuals under the Income Tax Act (unless specifically not applicable to NRIs), such as Section 80C, with respect to certain investments, payment of principal on housing loan, etc. The taxable income can be reduced by availing of these exemptions.

Filing alternatives

The NRIs can file their tax returns online on the Income Tax Department e-filing portal. Alternatively, they can use other private, paid e-filing portals to do so, or even take the help of tax advisers.

Points to note

It is not necessary for an NRI to file tax returns if the total income during the relevant financial year consists only of investment income or long-term capital gains, or both, and the tax has been deducted at source from such income.

Did you know?

4 things you need to do to protect your returns