Tax Day 2025

This is the day where the IRS demonstrates it's got what it takes to take what you got.

I wish today was also Election Day so people could reflect and vote on whether they were getting their money's worth from the taxes they pay. Politicians are too smart to do that.

I've already completed my taxes and filed my business and personal returns. Not enjoying the, in my view, rather excessive amount I'm paying to both the state and the feds, that's for sure.

For those of you who haven't, it's time to get it done or file an extension quickly.

For those of you who think there's some magical incantation in the tax code that can let you out of filing, you're sadly wrong.

Anybody who tells you not to file on the basis that: the tax system is "voluntary"; that you're a state citizen and not a United States citizen; that you're not an "individual"; that wages are not income; or that Section 869 of the tax code says you don't have to pay taxes is setting you up for a really bad fall.

This fall can include not just penalties and interest on top of the taxes you owe, but also possible misdemeanor and felony convictions for being a dumb-ass and willfully failing to pay your taxes and/or filing false returns.

There is no magical incantation or distorted, partial, and out-of-context reading of the tax code or portion of a case that lets you out of filing and paying taxes on income. It doth not work that way.

The IRS has pages and pages devoted to taking apart these scams, along with the cites to the court cases demolishing them: The Truth About Frivolous Arguments.

It's a very extensive series, as it's impressive as to how many dumb arguments are out there and how they've been shot down.

Short of permanently moving out of the United States and renouncing your citizenship while doing so and never working in the USA again, which I wouldn't recommend, you're going to have a very hard time coming up with a valid argument as to how income you receive is somehow not subject to income taxation.

If you want to stop filing taxes and paying income tax then stop having an income --  which is kinda hard. 

 Or, you can spend your time working on campaigning and voting for politicians who will end the income tax, which is also rather hard if not well nigh impossible. Indeed it is much harder than simply falling for a fake don't-pay-your-taxes scheme, but at least it doesn't result in interest, penalties, and a criminal conviction, so it has got that going for it, at least.

Tax Fraud Season

Yes, it's the season for tax fraud yet again.

 The Detroit Free Press: Scammers go after lucrative tax credits, use new tricks to file fake tax returns

As noted in the article, the IRS has unfortunately made it even easier for fraudsters this year.

They did so by removing one safeguard:  if you're one of those whose 2020 return is still not processed by the IRS you can place a  0 on your return for the prior year to prov e you identity.  Unfortunately,  anyone else can do that just as easily rather than a fraudster actually having to know your last year's income to use your ID to steal a tax refund under your name.  Nice way to open the door wide open there.

Add lots of refundable credits including for people who don't need to show any income at all, and you get some of the scams in the article, such as someone stealing an identity and then claiming to have 13 kids to get thousands of dollars in unearned tax credits sent right to them.

Of course, the IRS keeps it easy by allowing fraudsters to get money in an easy and untraceable way:

Many times, the refund cash is to be deposited onto a prepaid debit card so that crooks have easy access to the money. 

Allowing refunds on anonymous debit cards rather than to only the actual bank accounts or a check made out in the name of the filer is ridiculous.   I'm almost surprised the IRS doesn't allow a refund to go to an anonymous digital coin account.

I guess the IRS has gotta allow the "unbanked" and illegals and of course the legion of fraudsters to get their (and other's) refunds without any need to prove their identity, right? Of course, this is at the expense of much easier fraud against the rest of us and the Treasury itself.

Maybe the IRS should take a real step to cut down on fraud and stop issue tax refunds on debit cards, and require it to go to bank accounts where the name on the account at least matches the filer's name.

IRS Mileage Increase For 2022 Doesn't Quite Keep Up With Inflation

The IRS has announced an increase in the standard deductible mileage calculation.

Instead of .56 per mile, you can now use 58.5 cents for your standard deductible mileage calculation.

Nice of them to recognise the increase in costs, but that's an increase of all of 4.5 percent.

Meanwhile, in reality, gasoline is up on average 57%, diesel is up 44%, and car maintenance and repair costs are also up.

Gov Half-Whit's Jet Jaunt Story Changes Yet Again

One of the problems with lying is the inability to get your story straight.

Combine layers of lies upon lies and it becomes harder and harder not to dig yourself in even deeper.

It also makes you appear less than credible, as your story keeps changing to cover the consequences of your last lie in the series that you used to spin your tall tale and get out of the fallout from your prior lies.

The Detroit Free Press: Whitmer's campaign will pay for controversial Florida flight

The Detroit News:  Whitmer's Florida flight cost shifted to campaign after FAA concerns

Yep, her last explanation that her non-profit paid for it created all sorts of problems with both the FAA and IRS.  It wasn't legal for her non-profit to "pay" for the March flight -but recall that they only helpfully paid it in May after details of it came to light.  

Now, in the latest round of obfuscations, it's being shifted directly to her campaign fund which likely will be a campaign funds violation.  On the upside for Whitmer, this changes the crime from an IRS violation with the non-profit inappropriately paying for it to a state campaign finance violation .

That changes the enforcement agency back to the state rather than the feds which is most convenient. 

Since she's best buddies with both AG Nessel and Secretary of State Benson, who would be the ones "investigating", you can predict the investigation will be duly done and found nothing occurred, or that at most there will be a minor slap on the wrist rather than a real penalty applied.

This likely still doesn't fix the FAA violation, but that only affects the airplane owner/operator and not Whitmer.

On the upside, we now learn that the 4-day (not 2 as originally claimed after the initial denial) trip included her daughters and allegedly a security detail.  Of course, it doesn't explain how the campaign can now pickup the bill.  After all a  Michigan governor doesn't typically campaign in Florida for re-election, especially as she's stated repeatedly the trip was for person reasons to visit her very sick dad who was "in failing health", and suffering form chronic illness" and had naught to do with her campaign.   Of course, the sick dad excuse has also been shown to be rather dubious as he was been seen in public back in Michigan quite soon after her trip being rather spry.

In short it's likely this was a massively hypocritical spring break trip out of state and she really needs to quit lying about it as she just keeps digging in deeper.

Expect further story changes as the consequences of the latest change come to light.

The Government Shutdown Of Fun - IRS Edition

Well, even as the government is supposedly shut down the IRS had no problems cashing my quarterly withholding check. That's highly appreciated, really.

On the other hand, the IRS turned off its fax line for filing S-Corp elections. It's not like a fax line costs money or anything and assuming they're up to date technology wise that fax should go right to electronic storage so its not like anyone even needs to be there to refill the fax machine's paper tray or anything like that.

As a result, quite a few of my clients are left hanging wondering if their election to be an S-Corp will be approved or not. Also I can't send the elections cheaply by fax but now have to be mailing them by certified mail so we have a proof of mailing as there are deadlines as to when you can make that election and missing the the election cutoff date has serious tax consequences. Hopefully the IRS will count the election date as the date of mailing, not the date when they finally reopen.

So, the shutdown doesn't affect them processing check and taking in your money, but it does affect you making a filing that has a tight deadline that can save you money. A real nice shutdown we got here.

End this clown show - allocate the money to build the wall which is a drop in the bucket as far as federal government overall spending goes, make a real budget, and pass it already so we don't have these continuing resolution games.

Well This Is Going To Be Just Great Part 2

Well it turns out the scum who falsely filed a Federal tax return in our names have also filed a false Michigan State tax return as well.

We've sent in the appropriate fraud affidavits, flagged our credit etc.

But, to date no one at IRS or Michigan State Treasury has contacted us regarding this, nor can we get through to a live human to make sure this is being dealt with. Still no assistance on how to file valid returns to make sure they are accepted, but I've at least found out the returns will need to be on paper with all sorts of additional hassles.

Apparently this fraud is becoming even easier because you can now get the option that instead of a traditional refund check or direct deposit to a bank account, the IRS can send out a Visa Card loaded with the refund money.

Can you say thanks for enabling fraudsters?

Not amused at all.

Well This is Going To Be Just Great

Just got a letter in the mail today from the Internal Revenue Service that they are quality checking our 2014 tax return.

There's a major problem with this:

We have not yet filed our 2014 tax return.

Indeed, we can't file it yet as we're still waiting on some forms to arrive.

So I'm now busy filling out IRS fraud affidavit forms, but the IRS letter lacks a fax number to send them quickly and instead they need to be mailed. This is very stupid in this day and age, especially as speed is important to catch people filing false returns. So I'm sure I'll be on hold on Monday for hours as I try to get through to them to let them know that identity theft has occurred here and try to receive a fax number where I can send the forms in to speed this up.

It All Depends On Whose Ox Is Gored

The Detroit Free Press editorial page, long a guaranteed apologist and defender of Obama and his priorities is finally getting somewhat annoyed with his administration as it interferes with the media's jealously guarded privileges.

Apparently it takes a direct attack on the media before the media lose their full-on lapdog mode and start to again fulfill their responsibilities as a free press.

The Detroit Free Press: Editorial: An attack on the press is an attack against us all

It’s hard to think of any justification for the Justice Department to have snatched up thousands of phone records from the Associated Press, but there had better be a forthright explanation coming.

From Attorney General Eric Holder, and from President Barack Obama, who should probably be dusting off résumés of Holder’s potential replacements.

This is government intrusion at a level that goes far beyond the issue of press protections. If federal law enforcement feels empowered to rifle through journalists’ private phone records, ostensibly looking for evidence of a government leak, then nothing would restrain similar action against other citizens.

Of course, the editorial being from the Free Press, they had to pull back their angst and defend Obama in the very same editorial, perhaps out of fear of an IRS audit if they criticized him too much:

Of course, some conservatives have leapt to an illogical conclusion: that Obama is Richard Nixon, whose abuse of government power was his undoing.

That’s absurd, but so would any suggestion that these transgressions don’t warrant serious inquiry, and serious consequences for those guilty of over-stepping their bounds.

Hmm, Benghazi, Fast and Furious, IRS and AP phone tapping and he's still not, at least in the minds of the Freep, as bad as Nixon. True enough. Nixon certainly did not enjoy this level of media sycophancy to cover his misdeeds.

Apparently the Freep will need to undergo a far bigger goring of its ox before it ceases to be a part of the Obama lapdog press.

It Must be Tax Season......

Based on the amount of IRS related spam I've been receiving lately, the scammers and spammers are out for your identifying info using the IRS as a cover.

I've now received spam with everything from the charmingly misspelled subject line of "Accaunt blocked!" to multiples with the same nonsensical subject line of "ssubfed", to emails with fake from: addresses like scam.irs.gov and scamreport.irs.gov (maybe that's what you'd call a clue to the unwary?), investigation.irs.gov, and security.irs.gov.

Folks, the IRS does not initiate communication with tax payers via email, and never in such a nonsensical and ungrammatical fashion (tax code excepted).

The IRS much prefers to send really scary-looking letters to your address of record.

Add on to this the fact that the email address receiving these emails is completely unconnected with anything I have to do with taxes and the whole thing is an easily deleted scam and spam-fest.

Do not reply to these false emails, and certainly do not respond with any personally identifying information or this tax season you'll be dealing with identity theft on top of filing your returns this year.