Inflated Refunds are #5 on the IRS "Dirty Dozen" List

         In expanding on the 12 most common Tax scams in the view of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for 2019, the next entry is the artificial inflation of Tax Refunds. This was briefly mentioned in the post about Tax Preparer fraud. In that post we emphasized how you can choose a Qualified Tax Professional with care. You can read the steps here. We are going to look at some situations in which scam artists have been known to strike!

          They often use flyers and phony storefronts to lure victims in. If the word of mouth about someone sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Sometimes they file a false Return in their client’s name to get the money, or target those who qualify for a Refund and con them into getting a larger amount by making false claims for credits. Included in the group who make inflated claims, are those who make deflated claims. There are some who make efforts to claim zero wages when they have income for that year. This is a theory which has no legal basis and will only lead to fines and penalties.

          Make sure that you are given a copy of what is filed. The Taxpayer is ultimately responsible for what is provided to the IRS. Protect yourself now by doing research and asking questions about the person you will entrust your personal information to. 

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