Remember when these types of signs were popping up across the country? Also prevalent were fraudulent efforts to get COVID-19 relief money. Federal investigations are starting to show results, with guilty pleas and convictions of those who illegally got the funds. (Photo by Anastasiia Chepinska on Unsplash) When I was a newspaper reporter back in Lubbock, Texas, my beats were police and courts, so I know firsthand that criminals are part of the Hub City's population. Still, I was disappointed to learn this week that a Lubbock man defrauded COVID pandemic financial programs out nearly $4 mill ..read more

What a fun Monday. The hubby and I spent much of the morning setting up free credit monitoring accounts related to recent healthcare data breaches. Then we each ordered a free credit report to see if miscreants had been pretending to be either of us. I suspect we are not alone in taking identity theft precautions. The HIPAA Journal reports there was a 261 percent month-over-month increase in breached healthcare records in July. More than 18 million records were exposed in 56 reported incidents. The incredibly high total was due to a major data breach at HCA Healthcare that saw the records of ..read more

Ristorante Piccolo in the Georgetown section of the nation's capital offers al fresco dining, when it's open. Currently the business is closed, but not because of its owners tax- and COVID-related guilty pleas this week. It sustained fire damage back in June. (Photo from Piccolo's Facebook page) The restaurant sector was particularly hard hit during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many were able to survive in part thanks to federal emergency relief programs. But some eateries took criminal advantage of Uncle Sam's help. And one such couple this week pleaded guilty to using $738,000 in c ..read more

Unsplash+ in collaboration with Getty Images One construction workers' union calls it the industry's "dirty little secret." Tax officials call it a crime. Both are talking about payroll tax evasion. Today, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), in coordination with IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), jointly issued a formal notice to financial institutions alerting them to increases in state and federal payroll tax evasion and workers' compensation insurance fraud in the both residential and commercial construction industries. Every year, state and federal tax authorities l ..read more

IVIX says its artificial intelligence (AI) software, which was designed with input from tax authorities, helps illuminate shadow economies. It does that, according to the company, by collecting publicly available business activity data and turning that information into credible leads for tax authorities to follow. IVIX, an Israeli venture with offices in New York, was founded in 2020, and touts itself as "the first AI-powered platform designed to address tax evasion in the shadow economy." Several former top Internal Revenue Service officials were and are among its advisors. Don Fort, former ..read more

Photo by Volodymyr Kondriianenko on Unsplash Summer is slipping away, but tax crooks are still hard at work. That's why the Internal Revenue Service and its Security Summit partners are spreading the word about signs of data theft. The warning from Uncle Sam and state tax officials, as well as the private sector tax community, is aimed at helping tax professionals. That's understandable, since they collect and manage clients' tax and personal data. If crooks can crack the tax pros' cache, they have what the IRS calls a precious commodity, details on thousands of taxpayers from just a few sou ..read more

Senate side of the U.S. Capitol. (Photo by Scrumshus - Own work, Public Domain) The Internal Revenue Service's to-do list is pretty packed right now. It just announced that it is implementing paperless tax protocols next year. But a group of U.S. senators say it needs to make fighting crypto tax evasion a priority. They are concerned about the Treasury Department's and IRS' apparent procrastination in complying with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act's (IIJA) mandate of new tax regulations for crypto asset traders. The IIJA-ordered rules would require third parties, such as Coinbase ..read more

Flags of member nations at the United Nations office in Geneva, Switzerland. (Photo by Photo by Peda Run on Unsplash) Here in the United States, the Internal Revenue Service has gotten a lot of attention for its efforts to fight tax evasion. Earlier this month, the IRS reported that it IRS had collected $38 million from more than 175 high-income tax delinquents. That money was the result of a new initiative made possible from $80 billion new Inflation Reduction Act funds, although Republicans clawed back $1.4 billion of that money (and more to come in future years) in the debt ceiling deal ..read more

IRS.gov Identity thieves continue to target taxpayers, but the Internal Revenue Service has given individuals a way to fight back. By using an Identity Protection Person Identification Number, or IP PIN, instead of their usual Social Security number, taxpayers can show the IRS that the IP PIN filing is the legitimate one. Even if a thief already has filed a fraudulent tax return, an IP PIN offers protection for later years, preventing taxpayers from being repeat victims of tax-related identity theft. Success of IP PINs: The IRS began allowing all taxpayers to apply for an IP PIN in January 2 ..read more

Real Madrid Carlo Ancelotti on the pitch sidelines (Photo: @MadridXtra Twitter screen capture) Spanish tax officials are not letting anything slide, especially when it comes to global celebrities. The tax evasion trial of pop star Shakira is scheduled to start this November. Now Carlo Ancelotti, coach of Real Madrid futbol club (for casual fans like me, that's a popular, and very valuable, soccer team), will stand trial for tax fraud for allegedly failing to declare image rights earnings in 2014 to the Spanish tax office. A Spanish judge said Ancelotti had "acknowledged" the actions which d ..read more