Out of the $11.4 million that the IRS spent on BlackBerrys and Internet aircards in fiscal year 2011, $1.1 million worth of the devices went unused for three months to a year, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. That means that nearly 14,000 aircards and more than 750 BlackBerrys weren’t activated for a chunk of the year. Sixty-eight BlackBerrys weren’t used at all, while still incurring the costs of a monthly cellphone plan. Further, the report found that there was a lack of oversight in how the devices are assigned – with about $950,000 worth being activated through the IRS without the required management approval. Continued misuse would cost taxpayers a total of more than $10.7 million over five years. [The Hill, TIGTA]
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IRS, DOJ Want a Peek at Some HSBC India Bank Accounts
Back in February, the IRS announced that it would be giving offshore bank account holders another chance to come clean on their tax-avoiding ways. Tax amnesty 1.0 went pretty well and last year, the IRS had a whale of time sticking it to UBS and a number of customers who were holding out. But in all honesty, we all know that picking off a bunch of blondes with above-average chocolatiering skills was some low-hanging fruit. Today the IRS, along with the DOJ, announced their next target of their sniffing-out-offshore-bank-account world tour. HSBC India! – come on down!
The United States is seeking an order from a federal court in San Francisco authorizing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to request information from HSBC Bank USA, N.A. about U.S. residents who may be using accounts at The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in India (HSBC India) to evade federal income taxes, the Justice Department announced today.
The government filed a petition with the court to allow the IRS to serve what is known as a “John Doe” summons on the bank. The IRS uses a John Doe summons to obtain information about possible tax fraud by people whose identities are unknown. If approved, the John Doe summons would direct HSBC USA to produce records identifying U.S. taxpayers with accounts at HSBC India, many of whom are believed by the government to have hidden their accounts from the IRS.
And if anyone is getting the idea that this is an HSBC/Hong Kong/India issue, Doug Shulman would like you to know that this is not personal, it’s simply the IRS doing the Treasury’s dirty work, “The IRS continues to focus its attention on international tax evasion,” the Commish said. “This summons request is focused on obtaining more information to help us determine if additional actions are needed. As I’ve said all along, our international efforts are not about just one country or one bank – it’s about our wider effort to ensure compliance with the nation’s tax laws.”
The Treasury isn’t going to fill itself now, is it?
[via WSJ]
The Widening of the Tax Gap is the IRS’s Fault, Says the IRS
Accounting Today reported on Friday: The estimated gross U.S. tax gap increased to $496 billion […]
Just So You’re Aware: Your Experience with IRS Can Now Be Rated on a Scale of One to Five Dog Bones
The following post is republished from AccountingWEB, a source of accounting news, information, tips, tools, resources and insight — everything you need to help you prosper and enjoy the accounting profession.
Consumers with a bone to pick with the Internal Revenue Service have the opportunity to share their experiences. Originally designed as an IRS profile database, IRSDoghouse.com has evolved into a free and anonymous Web site where anyone can rate – negatively or positively – their personal and professional experiences with IRS employees.
The IRS certainly holds the tax-paying public to task and now is the time for practitioners and other tax-paying individuals to reward or bite back, according to the site’s creators. Ratings are based on dog bones, with a single dog bone rating as the least favorable; five dog bones is the best rating.
People share personal experiences and can post information about the IRS employee, including whether the employee was helpful, clueless, difficult to work with, or knowledgeable. Reviews allow for character descriptions and other details. In the characteristic section, one reviewer explained that this IRS employee has been a government employee too long. She was clueless, difficult to work with, and would be fired if she worked in the private sector. The IRS employee received one dog bone.
On the other hand, a positive review of five bones reported that the IRS employee was able to negotiate, was fair, helpful, intelligent, and interacted with him in a kind, courteous, and professional manner. This IRS employee demonstrated positive communication skills and a pleasant attitude. He was a pleasure to work with and gave the benefit of the doubt to the practitioner/taxpayer. He also allowed ample time to comply with requests. “This is one of the good guys in the IRS,” the rater said.
The Web site provides people with IRS complaints a safe and anonymous place to vent or to share feel-good stories. And, if people don’t wish to post any comments at all, they can still read about practitioners’ and other tax payer experiences to know what they might be up against.
The site is free to use and is monitored for extreme profanity, hateful comments, and threats, which are removed. The administrator of this site has the authority to remove any posting that is not deemed appropriate.