Category: IRS

The TIGTA Manages to Give the IRS Credit for Doing a Decent Job at Taxpayer Assistance Centers

The most nagtastic wing of the Federal Bureaucracy, the Treasury Inspector General of Tax Administration, gave an extremely tepid thumbs-up to the IRS today for satisfying the needs of taxpayers using services at Taxpayer Assistance Centers (“TAC”).

If you look at the TIGTA’s report, you’ll find a fairly neutral title, “Surveys of Taxpayers With Tax Account Issues Indicate They Are Satisfied With the Service They Received at Taxpayer Assistance Centers.”

However, if you read the title of the press release you’ll find things take considerably less enthused turn, “TIGTA Survey Finds Taxpayers Generally Satisfied With Level Of Service Received At Taxpayer Assistance Centers.”


Why the unnecessary adverb TIGTA? If you remove the ‘generally’ the title remains informative, so may we ask what the unspoken element is here? Are you insinuating that the IRS sucks at everything else it does and this particular survey just happens to stray from the narrative?

Hell, even Inspector General/Head IRS nag, J. Russell George, was caught off guard and offered the following “what have you done lately,” statement, “The IRS should continuously ensure it is providing the best available service to all taxpayers, including those with tax account issues who visit their Taxpayer Assistance Centers, and find cost-effective ways to do so.”

When asked, “Overall, I was satisfied with the customer service I received from the IRS during my visit to the IRS walk-in office,” 75% of those surveyed responded “Strongly Agree.” If you can get 3 out of 4 people to say that their experience with the IRS was positive rather than “I was giving strong consideration to strangling one of the employees with my shoelace,” you best recognize a job well done.

TIGTA Survey Finds Taxpayers Generally Satisfied With Level Of Service Received At Taxpayer Assistance Centers [TIGTA]

Local Man Assumes Tagging of Racial Slurs on Building Is Related to an IRS Audit

Because what else could it be?

Police are trying to figure out who sprayed racial slurs in the parking lot of a Hall County building that includes offices for the Internal Revenue Service. The messages invoking the Ku Klux Klan, and obscenities directed at African-Americans were discovered by employees as they arrived to work.


Odds aren’t that bad; approximately 1 in 6. Still doesn’t explain why invoking the Klan was necessary.

The building on Oak Street in Gainesville is home to nearly a half-dozen businesses, including an IRS office. Police told Channel 2’s Diana Davis they had no evidence linking the slurs to one person working in the building.

One employee speculated that the vandals may have a beef with the IRS. “Probably someone was being audited and they were frustrated with the situation and process they were going through. More than likely this is the result of that,” said Christian Saslo.

Racial Slurs Found Outside IRS Office [WSBTV]

How Desperate Is Wesley Snipes to Stay Out of Jail?

SO desperate that in addition to appealing his conviction on any possible grounds, that he has hired private dicks (allegedly!) to following Ponzi Schemer du jour (allegedly!) Ken Starr’s wife, Diane Passage.


Passage told the Post, “I was leaving, and I noticed two men trailing behind me. They stood out because they were wearing dark suits on a 90-degree day. They followed me for a block and a half, then I lost them because they were sweating so much. They contacted my doorman and my attorney, and said they wanted information that might help Snipes. He was a client [of Starr] in 2000 but before I met my husband. I have nothing to do with his taxes.”

So, naturally, this is all very confusing, as the connection between the pole dance master’s problems (frozen bank accounts) and Willie Mays Hayes’s problems (looking at 3 years in the joint for tax evasion) is basically nil.

The only that we can come up with is that Wes is reaching the obscurely known “celebrity realizes that they are for real, like really real, going to jail” freak-out stage.

Wesley Snipes has private eyes after Ponzi schemer Starr’s wife [NYP]

Two Days After the IRS Took His Favorite Scarface Poster, Young Buck Filed for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

Look, maybe if shotgun-toting IRS Agents kicked down your door and took your video games, a five-figure watch and a movie poster that has far more sentimental value than any of you can appreciate, then you might know Young Buck’s frame of mind.

If not, then you best button it.

Two days after every material possession in your house is taken away (and if you’re a hip-hop artist, material possessions are pretty much everything) you’re bound to re-examine your life.

Brown proposes having his label, Cashville Records, dock his pay $12,500 a month for 60 months, for a total of $750,000. The bankruptcy filing claims Brown earns a total of $19,170 a month.

The entertainer filed for Chapter 13 on Aug. 5. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge George C. Paine accepted the proposed plan and ordered the payroll deductions Aug. 20. Brown will be free to keep his additional income, including royalty payments.

In other words, he’ll be back to Scarface wallpaper in no time.

Rapper Young Buck files for Chapter 13 bankruptcy after IRS raid [The Tennessean]

Winner of Dallas Cowboys Tickets Wasn’t Too Worried About Peasant Fans Showing Up to IRS Auction

The big winner in this morning’s auction of some primo seats at Texas Stadium went to Hank Wendorf of Dallas-based Ticketsource.com.

There was only one other registered bidder at the IRS auction and the total damage ended up being $311,000 which was in Wendorf’s range and he’s pretty flippin’ stoked, “These seat options are not available from the Cowboys. I think it’s a great opportunity for me to add to my inventory,” he told the Dallas Morning News and saying, “In my opinion, these are the best seats in the stadium.”


The package includes seasons tickets for this year plus options to buy the same seats – located behind the Cowboys bench near the 50 yard-line – for the next 30 years, hence, you’ll never get them.

Since the starting bid was around $180k, Wendorf wasn’t too concerned about too much competition showing up to today’s auction but at least he wasn’t smug about it, “If fans want to judge the seat quality for themselves, ‘they can buy tickets from me,’ he said with a laugh before heading off to sign lengthy legal documents.”

Prime Dallas Cowboys seats go to ticket broker for $241,000 in IRS auction [Dallas Morning News]

For Some Unknown Reason, The IRS Confiscated a Nearly Worthless Scarface Poster in Young Buck Raid

Earlier in the month you may recall the story of hip-hop artist Young Buck being on the wrong side of a IRS raid that involved some of those shiny shotguns.

At that time, we learned that the agents seized several items – recording equipment, jewelry, furniture, his platinum wall plaques – even Mr Buck’s PlayStation (he says it was his son’s but, come on).

Anyway, we now learn that agents also confiscated a $31k Breitling Bentley watch AND a Scarface movie poster with an approximate value of…$10.


We’re not too familiar with IRS protocols, so perhaps when someone’s house is raided, the standard operating procedure is to take literally everything. The furniture. The porno collection. Worthless movie posters that there are literally tens of thousands of copies of. It all goes.

Presumably, the agents could have sold the poster to a kid on the street for a few bucks so they could get coffee but it would still be only enough money for one or two coffees. Or maybe it was enough for one (one!) cover at the local strip joint for the post-raid celebration. Or maybe on of the guys/gals really, really, really wanted that poster. Who knows?

Motivation aside, it certainly serves as another fine example of IRS shrewdness when it comes to collection efforts.

$31,000 watch among items seized from Young Buck’s home [The Tennessean]

The IRS Asks Applicants: “How Much Ya Bench?”

Actually they ask you a lot questions but as FINS tells us today, there are far more interesting qualifications to join Doug Shulman’s brigade than, say, one of the Big 4.

For example, if you’re the ripe old age of 38 and you’ve never served in law enforcement, you’re out. Sorry but this is the Criminal Investigation Division and we don’t need your old college intramural energies acting up on raid where someone might get killed.

That being said, just because you happen to be in the “prime” of your life, that doesn’t mean you get a free pass. The Service does require that you be in “prime physical condition” and your slow, uncoordinated ass will be tested on it.


Here’s the lowdown:

If any of this is confusing (we know some of you haven’t exercised in you life) jump over the website where there are videos demonstrating the vertical jump, bench press, situps, The Illinois Agility Run, and simply running. Again, the Service appears to be under the impression that plenty of you only break a sweat when you eat, hence the videos. Feel free to apply but only after checking with your doctor.

IRS Hiring Special Agents for Criminal Investigation Division [FINS]

Attention Dallas Cowboys Fans: You Have Another Shot at Season Tickets Courtesy of the IRS

Tomorrow morning at 9 am Dallas time, bring your biggest suitcase filled with consecutively numbered hundos so you can watch Romo disappoint the faithful for yet another season:

The Internal Revenue Service plans to auction the six-seat package Tuesday, with bidding starting at about $185,000.

It’s the first time in at least five years that a season ticket package for any professional sports team has been auctioned to settle a debt, said Clay Sanford, an IRS spokesman in Dallas.

Sanford said the agency’s privacy rules prevented him from identifying the ticket holder. But a document relating to the auction shows the federal government is owed $4.5 million.

Technically, the IRS is auctioning off two contracts offering licenses, or “options,” for six seats. Included in the package are 2010 season tickets for the six seats and parking for the 10 home games.

The licenses grant the holder the right to buy season tickets for a given seat for 30 years. Licenses for those seats sell for $50,000 each, said Cowboys spokesman Brett Daniels.

That would be $300,000 for the six licenses up for bid.

All of the seats are in section C110 between the 40 and 50 yard lines on the lower level, the first level up from the field. The auction includes parking for the 2010 season.

We should tell you that you’ll also have to pay an additional $70,000 “still due on the contracts and to cover transfer fees.”

IRS auctioning off Dallas Cowboys seat package [DMN]

The AICPA Doesn’t Mind If You Copy and Paste Their Letter for the Expressed Purpose of Telling the IRS That the Preparer Regs Suck

The AICPA is following the ABA’s strategy of mass letter sending by urging its members to inundate the IRS with tearful pleas to reconsider the Service’s Tax Preparer Registration Proposal.

The issue is so serious that the Tax Vice President, Edward Karl, went on the Hill today to testify about the AICPA’s concerns, in what had to have been one raucous hearing:

The AICPA has serious concerns that the proposed IRS regulations are an overreach and would place immense burdens on CPA firms, particularly small- and medium-size firms. Further, the AICPA questions whether the IRS has adequately examined the costs that would be imposed on tax preparers and American taxpayers.

The IRS has proposed four broad new requirements for paid tax return preparers including: mandatory registration, application of enforceable ethical standards, competency testing and continuing education requirements. At [today’s] hearing, the IRS specifically requested comments about registration and the fees tax preparers will be charged for newly required personal taxpayer identification numbers, or PTINs.

While the AICPA has consistently supported the IRS’s efforts to increase tax compliance and elevate ethical conduct through the adoption of a registration process for paid tax return preparers, the AICPA does not believe other elements of the policy are fully justifiable or necessary, according to Karl.

The AICPA is urging all of its 360,000 members to contact the IRS about the proposed regulations to express opposition to elements of the plan.

Adrienne urges everyone to do the copy and paste thing ASAP and since there’s no mention of the IRS being anti-form letter, then we’d probably say that it’s safe to proceed with the letter with the AICPA’s language.

That being said, that’s a pretty boring approach and if you can muster the passion of either side of the fair value debate, we suggest you write from the heart.

The IRS Is Unlikely to Take Blood Diamonds as Payment for Naomi Campbell’s Tax Lien

Where’s a Liberian warlord when you actually need one?


NC owes the Treasury around $60k which is really NBD seeing how that’s probably what she spends on antique torture tools to use on her assistants. In a weekend.

Plus, her boyfriend is the so-called “Donald Trump of Moscow,” which could mean a lot of things but it for sure means that dude is rich.

IRS slaps tax lien on model Naomi Campbell [Tax Watchdog]

IRS Agent/Hero Thwarts Robbery Attempt, Shooting Suspect

This guy/gal is going to get a big slap on the back from Doug Shulman:

An Internal Revenue Service criminal investigations special agent shot and wounded one person during an apparent robbery attempt in San Francisco’s Bayview District overnight, police and an IRS spokeswoman said.


Our hero was apparently on duty at the time which, apparently, isn’t strange:

[IRS Spokeswoman Arlette Lee] said agents are on call 24 hours.

“It is not unusual for IRS agents to be out at different times of the morning or evening,” Lee said.

Lee said IRS special agents carry firearms but could not immediately confirm that the agent involved in the shooting had fired a service weapon.

In other news, IRS Agents also eat but are impervious to coffee.

IRS agent shoots suspect during robbery attempt [Mercury News]

Earlier:
Those IRS Shotguns Are Seeing Some Action