Taxes
Fraud - Tax Fraud
In this article we're going to go over a type of fraud that can hit you in multiple directions. This is tax fraud.
There is an old saying that what goes around comes around. Tax fraud may be the first thing the gods were talking about when they came up with that one. See, a person who commits tax fraud may very well end up being a victim himself. We'll explain how shortly.
So what exactly is tax fraud? Simply put, tax fraud is the attempt of an individual or corporation to evade having to pay income taxes to the federal or state government, or at least an attempt to reduce their tax burden. This is probably the most common type of fraud in the United States today.
The truth is, many people engage in tax fraud to some degree. Some just engage in it more so than others. The mildest of offenders may report a little more charitable deduction than what they really gave to their church, Salvation Army, or local police department. While the amount of money they save may be a relative drop in the bucket, it is still fraud just the same. Others may report medical expenses they paid that were eventually reimbursed to them. Because this is very hard to check most of these deductions go unnoticed.
But the big problems are the ones caused by the very wealthy and the large corporations. These are the people the government rely on for a bulk of their income and these are the people who, when income tax time comes around, end up paying less than some folks who don't have two nickels to rub together. The variety of schemes these wealthy people and corporations use to evade paying taxes is numerous to say the least, from bogus or greatly inflated entertainment expenses to bogus tax shelters.
And that is where sometimes the practice of these frauds comes back to bite these people. All too often when an individual or corporation commits tax fraud through some tax shelter scheme what ultimately ends up happening way too often is the person or company offering the scheme takes the individual's or corporation's money and runs off with it, never to be seen again. This is where the saying what goes around comes around comes in. The individual or corporation can't report the crime because they had intended to commit a crime themselves. So what happens is they have to eat their loss. Some would say that they got their just desserts. Unfortunately the number of individuals and corporations that get away with tax fraud far outnumber the ones who get caught or end up having their money take an unexpected trip to an overseas account.
There is really very little one can do about tax fraud as the smart individuals and corporations are usually very good at this. The only thing you can do if you suspect someone is committing tax fraud is report this activity to the IRS. You can do this by either calling their toll free number, mailing to them or going to one of their walk in offices.
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Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Fraud
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Michael Russell
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