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Rarely does a single piece of mail cause one's heart to flutter, face to flush and knees to buckle. But, then again, rarely does a piece of mail arrive with the dreaded return address: Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service That's the "Welcome Home" that greeted me this past Tuesday as I dragged myself through the front door after a rough day of earning a living, playing golf and ferrying adolescent infants from one suburban soiree to another. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I owed our esteemed and infallible federal government... $11,589.22! Holy smoke. What did I...

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000...

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Senate late Wednesday unanimously passed legislation extending unemployment benefits and also significantly expanding a homebuyer tax credit that was championed by Republican U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia. The Senate voted 98-0 to extend unemployment benefits for the jobless by up to 20 weeks. In states with unemployment rates of 8.5 percent and above -- in Georgia the unemployment rate is 10.1 percent -- the jobless could receive up to 99 weeks of benefits, which average about $300 per week...

Despite its brief existence, the federal government's $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers already has proven to be a costly boondoggle. And in what appears to be an act of unintended comedy, Congress is primed to extend and expand this "temporary" program beyond its November 30 deadline. On Thursday, October 22, J. Russell George, inspector general for the Internal Revenue Service, testified before a House Ways and Means subcommittee that the tax credit has been rife with inefficiency and fraud. Among those scamming the program, he believes, are more than 50 IRS employees. This interim report, George emphasized, if anything,...

On Thursday, the United States House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution funding the Federal Government through December 18th. The continuing resolution was passed as part of the behemoth Interior-Environment Appropriations conference report. A continuing resolution is a stop-gap provision which allows the government to continue its operations until Congress can determine the next year’s appropriations. The actions taken today merely extended the expiration date of the resolution which went into effect on October 1st. By extending the existing continuing resolution Congress has continued to deprive ACORN and its affiliates of federal funds until December 18th. This is not a...

As

<p>Back in the winter when Congress was debating whether stimulus programs could get money into the economy quickly enough to make a difference, supporters of government efforts to prime the pump argued that tax credits would offer Americans a quick financial shot in the arm. After all, what else does government need to do to process a tax credit except take in applications, verify their accuracy, and then ship the money out the door?</p>

Congressional Democrats are set to announce Tuesday legislation aimed at squeezing more information from foreign banks and U.S. citizens with offshore accounts to ferret out tax evaders. The bill from Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.), and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.), includes some of President Barack Obama's proposals to fight offshore tax cheating. According to a summary of the bill obtained by Dow Jones Newswires, it is expected to raise $8.5 billion for the U.S. government over 10 years. Foreign banks with U.S. customers would face a 30% withholding tax on income from...

Prayer stopped for a few moments Sunday at 11 churches in Chesapeake and Portsmouth as pastors allowed time for a little bit of politicking between hymns of joy and sermons of salvation. State Del. Lionell Spruill Sr. came to visit, bringing along Democratic candidate for governor Creigh Deeds and envelopes of tickets to one of the hottest political events in Hampton Roads this season. Conducting what has become a tradition for Democrats running for high statewide posts, Spruill led Deeds on a five-hour whirlwind tour of Sunday services, with staff members and reporters in tow. At each stop, Deeds, a...

Denise Tejada bought a house last month at the age of 20, thanks in large part to a loan guaranteed by the Federal Housing Authority. This story offers a dramatic demonstration that, despite the housing bubble causing the worst economic downturn in generations, the ideology of home ownership is alive and well in the United States and still being supported by the government. Without question, Tejada's loan is toxic--to her and to the taxpayers who are backing the loan. Her house cost $155,000. Tejada's loan was apparently made on a micro-down payment of just 3.5%, the minimum down payment to...

John Mckinnon at the WSJ reports: Home-Buyer Credit Is Focus of Inquiry The Internal Revenue Service is examining more than 100,000 suspicious claims for the first-time home-buyer tax break ... The tax credit is completely refundable, even if the homebuyer has no tax liability - and this makes it a target for fraud. From the IRS: "[The tax credit is] fully refundable, meaning the credit will be paid out to eligible taxpayers, even if they owe no tax or the credit is more than the tax owed." Also, the credit is separate from the closing, and the WSJ article suggests...

GENEVA (Reuters) - Swiss bank UBS AG warned U.S. customers by registered mail their account details may be given to U.S. tax authorities, a method that could itself breach secrecy laws, a Swiss paper said on Sunday. The use of registered mail and envelopes showing the sender was UBS could enable the U.S. authorities to trace customers wanted for tax evasion well before their details are handed over under a U.S.-Swiss double taxation agreement, Sonntag weekly paper said. A spokesman for UBS declined to comment on the report. Switzerland and the United States settled a row over evasion of U.S....

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands — What happens to a tax haven when it has to raise taxes? The Cayman Islands may soon find out. Caught in a vise of shrinking revenue and stubbornly high public spending, the Caymans averted a fiscal crisis this week by securing a $60 million overseas loan. But the Foreign and Commonwealth office in Britain, which oversees the Caymans and can veto foreign lending requests, has delivered an ultimatum: The rest of the $284 million the Cayman government says it needs will not be forthcoming until this offshore financial center imposes spending cuts and considers some...

"Survivor" winner Richard Hatch was released from a Massachusetts jail early Friday after completing a federal sentence for evading taxes on the $1 million he won during the CBS reality show's first season. Hatch was freed shortly before 6 a.m. from Barnstable County jail in Bourne, Mass... He was driven home to Newport, R.I., by sheriff's deputies ... Hatch, 48, now faces three years of supervised release. ... He must also complete a mental health program. Hatch's husband is from Argentina, and he has asked the court unsuccessfully in the past to grant him permission to live there... In 2006,...

Four House Republicans on Wednesday accused the nation's largest Muslim advocacy group of trying to "infiltrate" Capitol Hill by placing interns in the offices of lawmakers who handle national security issues. The four lawmakers, members of the anti-terror caucus, asked for an investigation into the Council on American Islamic Relations after discovering an internal memo noting the group's strategy. They also highlighted a new book by Paul Sperry titled "Muslim Mafia," scheduled for release on Thursday, which claims the group has been actively infiltrating Congress. Reps. Sue Myrick of North Carolina, Trent Franks of Arizona, Paul Broun of Georgia and...

In another blow to the false narrative advanced by Tea Party operatives and Fox News that the movement is a “grassroots� uprising of ordinary Americans. A co-founder of the national anti-tax Tea Party Patriots movement, failed to disclose during her numerous media interviews and TV appearances that she and her husband filed for bankruptcy and owed the IRS half a million dollars.

WASHINGTON — With 2010 models arriving in auto dealer showrooms, the Internal Revenue Service reminds taxpayers that buying a new car, light truck, motor home or motorcycle could qualify them for a special deduction for state and local sales and excise taxes on their 2009 tax returns. Purchases made before Jan. 1, 2010, qualify for this deduction under the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009. The deduction is limited to sales and excise taxes and similar fees paid on up to $49,500 of the purchase price of a new vehicle. The deduction is reduced for joint filers with modified...

GOP To Draft Resolution Designed To Oust Rangel Sources: Dems Discussing Plan To Have Embattled Harlem Congressman Resign So Gov. Paterson Can Run For His Seat Reporting Marcia Kramer NEW YORK (CBS) ― Congressional Republicans are again demanding that Congressman Charles Rangel step down as chairman of the House tax writing committee, saying his ethics problems make him the poster boy for institutional arrogance. Democratic support for embattled Rangel will get another test this week. Republicans will introduce a resolution calling for the Harlem Democrat to step down as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee until ethics...

VIDEO: Former Arkansas Governor and Presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, recently appeared on the FOX Business Channel to discuss overhauling the nation's overbearing tax system. Huckabee makes a convincing case in favor of abolishing the IRS and implementing the Fair Tax.

Dozens of pastors around the nation are challenging an Internal Revenue Service rule that anti-Christian activists often invoke when they want to silence the message of churches, according to the Alliance Defense FundThe organization has announced that more than 80 preachers are taking part in its second annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday this weekend. The pastors will preach Sunday sermons related to biblical perspectives on the positions of electoral candidates or current government officials, exercising their constitutional right to free religious expression, the ADF said. They will do so despite a "problematic" IRS rule that activists use when they want to...

Prayer was mixed with a dose of politics at Passaic’s largest black church on Sunday as congregants donned Obama T-shirts in a show of support for a president they say has been unfairly criticized after only eight months in office. The Union Baptist Church held a “Support Obama Sunday,” asking members to “turn the script” on the “wicked and nasty” reaction Obama has received in some quarters as he pushes for health-care reform. The church’s pastor, Rev. Ronald W. Johnson, said he rarely brings politics into the church but was moved to do so because he is concerned that some...

The best part comes at 1:35 into the video where the crazy idiot thinks that there's noe proof against Acorn. What the frak do you call the video bonehead! Too stupid to live. Anyways don't forget to vote for the video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6JqFvbBi4s

The battered house on Sherwin Road was put to good use before the fire department burned it to the ground. SWAT teams barged through the front door in an exercise on dealing with domestic violence. Rescue crews scattered mannequins around the house and blew smoke through the halls to simulate a meth lab explosion. Firefighters set fires in one room after another and practiced putting them out. Then, in one last drill, they torched the whole place. Five years later, though, a dispute still smolders over the homeowner's attempt to claim a $287,000 charitable tax deduction for donating the house...

VIDEO: Legal problems aside, former Congressman James Traficant is always a stimulating and hilarious interview. The brash Traficant appeared on Hardball with Chris Matthews and once again suggested he might run for Congress again after serving time in prison. His platform would be to repeal the income tax and abolish the IRS. Said Traficant: "I want to get the IRS. Kick them in the crotch real good."

More bad news for the Democratic Parties Favorite community organizing group, ACORN. While Harry Reid continues to get heat at home for refusing to allow Senate hearings on ACORN, Senator Grassley had his staff do a little investigation of their own. According to the Capital Research Center, Grassley (R-Iowa), asked the IRS to probe ACORN – and asked that the group be dropped from the Combined Federal Campaign (a charitable program for government workers). This is not the first time the Senator has gone after the ACORN criminal enterprise, in 2006 he asked the IRS to investigate ACORN for voter...

The IRS yesterday severed its ties with ACORN, the profoundly corrupt community organizing group embroiled in a seemingly never-ending string of controversies, criminal investigations and voter registration fraud charges.  Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau also severed ties with the group. The latest controversy is over the series of videos covertly taped by new media journalists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles.  In these videos, O’Keefe and Giles, posing as a pimp and prostitute, are given tax advice by ACORN representatives in different cities across the country.   The tax advice included listing “performance artist� as the prostitute’s employment code in...

ACORN, the community organizing group and Republican cause célèbre, lost its federal funding last week after some of its employees were captured on video telling people they thought were prostitutes how to manipulate tax laws. How do real prostitutes go about paying their taxes? They report their income on IRS Form 1040 Schedule C (PDF) and pay self-employment tax in addition to ordinary income taxes. Sex-worker advocacy organizations regularly receive requests for tax advice. Some prostitutes, for example, might need help with the first line on the form—which asks the filer to identify her profession and service offered. It turns...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The IRS says it is severing ties with ACORN, the community activist group involved in a scandal after employees were caught on video giving advice to a couple posing as a prostitute and pimp. The Internal Revenue Service said Wednesday it would no longer include ACORN in its volunteer tax assistance program. The program offered free tax advice to about 3 million low- and moderate-income tax filers this spring

See video @ WDSU: IRS Leins on ACORN

ACORN CEO Bertha Lewis told Fox News' Chris Wallace on Sunday that her group "absolutely pays its taxes." Not true: The IRS and Louisiana's taxmen have imposed nearly $2 million in liens against ACORN for failing to fork over taxes at its New Orleans national headquarters. The IRS recently filed a $548,000 lien against the group, and Louisiana state tax officials have slapped $334,000 in liens on ACORN since last October. Evidence that ACORN ignored its tax obligations may be less exciting than its branch offices' eagerness to help a self-professed pimp break multiple laws, or the voter-registration fraud for...

Procrastinating tax cheats will get a few extra weeks to apply for an amnesty program that has been flooded with applications from people who hid assets overseas. The Internal Revenue Service said Monday it will extend the deadline, originally set for Wednesday, until Oct. 15. More than 3,000 Americans have applied for the program, which promises no jail time and reduced penalties for tax dodgers who come forward, said a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the agency has not publicly released the size of the program. The IRS is extending the deadline to give a rush...

Five years ago, car-wash owner Orman Wilson set up a pension plan for himself and six employees. For that, he may owe the IRS a $1.2 million tax penalty. Mr. Wilson, the owner of 19 coin-operated car washes in Houston, says he relied on four advisers, including a certified public accountant, to set up a plan that received approval from the Internal Revenue Service. Then, in late 2007, the IRS found fault with the plan and assessed it $250,000 -- plus special penalties of $1.2 million. ... The source of the distress: tax-law changes made by Congress in 2004. At...

Many of us had ‘hoped’ for some simplification of the Internal Revenue Code, which has grown from 14 pages to over 17,000 pages since its inception. But it doesn't look like that will happen anytime soon. H.R. 3200 will increase the burden of the income tax code by making the IRS the primary enforcer of Mandatory Health Insurance. Did you hear that? You get your ‘mandatory’ health insurance, but you had better file your tax returns, and file them timely and correctly. Not only that, but you will have to determine what kind of health insurance you have and...

The liberal activist group ACORN rakes in millions of dollars in federal taxpayer dollars a year - at least $53 million since 1994 for its housing programs alone - but that largess is in jeopardy after a hidden-camera video showed one of its workers advising a supposed prostitute how to cheat on taxes and mortgage applications. House Republicans on Tuesday introduced the Defund ACORN Act that would sever all ties between the government and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), a day after the Senate voted overwhelmingly to prohibit funding the group in the 2010 housing appropriations...

The U.S. Tax Court ruled Monday that Brooklyn, N.Y. tax lawyer William G. Halby, 78, had no legal basis to deduct prostitutes and pornography as medical expenses on his federal tax returns. Judge Joseph Robert Goeke upheld the Internal Revenue Service's determination that Halby owed $21,000 in back taxes plus $4,000 in accuracy-related penalties for his disallowed write-off of $120,000 of what the court delicately (and in quotations) called "service providers" as well as pornographic materials. According to the opinion, Halby did maintain careful records as is generally required for deductions. He "kept track of these visits in a journal,"...

Oversight: As the Senate votes to de-fund Acorn, add pimping, tax evasion and human trafficking to voter fraud paid for with taxpayer dollars and you have an organized criminal enterprise. It's time to investigate.After Acorn workers were caught on tape in three cities allegedly abetting what they believed was a fraudulent-mortgage and sex-trafficking scheme, the Senate has voted overwhelmingly to strip the group of funding in the Transportation/Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill. The amendment, offered by Nebraska Republican Sen. Mike Johanns, passed by an 83-to-7 margin and marked the third time this year that Republicans have tried to block...

House Republicans are not content with just curbing ACORN’s relationships with HUD and the Census Bureau. Monday’s Senate vote, he points out, was an amendment to a housing and transportation spending bill that passed the House in July. When it passed the House in the summer, it did not deny ACORN access to federal dollars. Now, with the amended Senate bill being tossed back to the House (and probably headed for a conference committee), House Republicans see an opportunity to broaden their efforts to cut ACORN off from government money. “There are multiple moving parts now,” the aide says. “There...

As was the case with Obama’s US Attorney General Eric Holder reversing the conviction for overt voter intimidation by New Black Panthers—who supported Barack Obama in his presidential run—the logical question is “Will Obama’s Department of Justice block any and all investigations of ACORN?” Both ACORN and the New Black Panthers worked almost tirelessly to “elect” Obama—by any means necessary

We elect a President every four years but we pay taxes every year. I propose that we create a Check-Off on our Federal Tax Form like the Presidential Campaign Fund. Every year all the bills signed by the President would be listed and we could check off if we want our tax money to go towards it. If our IRS Form listed ObamaCare, Cap and Trade, Stimulus, Auto Bailouts, TARP, how much money do you think these programs would be able to spend if we had a say in it?

The federal government should review all tax returns prepared by ACORN tax preparers (and all loan applications prepared by ACORN -- but that is a separate review process).

Clarice Feldman The federal government should review all tax returns prepared by ACORN tax preparers (and all loan applications prepared by ACORN -- but that is a separate review process). That the IRS knows who these people are is suggested by this article, which I suppose was repeated throughout the country: ... ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) Tax and Benefits Centers in Hartford and Bridgeport are ready to assist CT Taxpayers. ACORN has partnered with the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Preparation (VITA) program to provide free tax preparation for low and moderate income taxpayers who cannot afford...

<p>ACORN officials offered to assist two individuals posing as a pimp and prostitute, encouraging them to lie to the Internal Revenue Service and providing guidance on how to claim underage girls from South America as dependents, according to an audiotape acquired by FOXNews.com.</p>

Officials with the controversial community organizing group ACORN were secretly videotaped offering to assist two individuals posing as a pimp and a prostitute, encouraging them to lie to the IRS and how to claim underage girls from South America as dependents. In the videotape on BigGovernment.com, made on July 24, James O'Keefe, a 25-year-old independent filmmaker, posed as a pimp with a 20-year-old woman named "Kenya" who posed as a prostitute while visiting ACORN's office in Baltimore. The couple told ACORN staffers they wanted to secure housing where the woman could continue to maintain a prostitution business. On the videotape,...

There's been a lot of discussion about the new and powerful federal agencies that would be created by the passage of a national health care bill. The Health Choices Administration, the Health Benefits Advisory Committee, the Health Insurance Exchange — there are dozens in all. But if the plan envisioned by President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats is enacted, the primary federal bureaucracy responsible for implementing and enforcing national health care will be an old and familiar one: the Internal Revenue Service. Under the Democrats' health care proposals, the already powerful — and already feared — IRS would wield even...

There's been a lot of discussion about the new and powerful federal agencies that would be created by the passage of a national health care bill. The Health Choices Administration, the Health Benefits Advisory Committee, the Health Insurance Exchange — there are dozens in all. But if the plan envisioned by President Barack Obama and Congressional Democrats is enacted, the primary federal bureaucracy responsible for implementing and enforcing national health care will be an old and familiar one: the Internal Revenue Service. Under the Democrats' health care proposals, the already powerful — and already feared — IRS would wield even...

Has he no shame? Of course not. He's Charlie Rangel, head of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee -- who can't be bothered to tend to his own tax returns, but now intends to punish ordinary folks for making arguably minor mistakes on their forms. The Post's Charles Hurt reported yesterday that Rangel's committee seeks to reduce legal defenses and increase fines and penalties on taxpayers undergoing IRS scrutiny for what they assert are innocent errors. Among other things, Rangel's bill would even prohibit the IRS from forgiving taxpayers who erred in good faith -- though that would be...

Privacy rights are under threat in the House's government health care plan. While plowing through the more than 1,000-page Democratic House bill, Declan McCullagh of CBS News uncovered provisions that would allow startling privacy intrusions. The innermost secrets of people's personal lives would be made available to thousands of government bureaucrats. Section 431(a) requires the Internal Revenue Service to give detailed taxpayer information to the new health choices commissioner and state health programs. The helpful government just wants to be able to tell citizens when they might be eligible for benefits they somehow might have overlooked. Besides letting all those...

The Internal Revenue Service will expand a program designed to catch tax cheats that searches for inconsistencies between mortgage payments and income. After prompting from an IRS auditor, the agency will study whether it should make greater use of data on mortgage-interest payments provided to it by banks. The IRS currently uses such data to send notices to non-filers who it believes should have filed a return. The data could also be used to target for audits individuals who don't file tax returns, or who report less income than they paid in mortgage interest, according to a letter released Monday...

Charlie Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the committee that writes the tax law, wants the IRS to get tough on taxpayers even if they make unintentional mistakes. Yes THAT Charlie Rangel. The one who is constantly getting caught "forgetting" about his income. * In September he admitted a failure to report $75 thousand in taxes. * He was discovered taking a tax break for people whose primary residence was in Washington DC, but if his primary residence was in DC he couldn't be congressman representing NYC. And besides, he was occupying four rent controlled controlled...

As if Obama’s health care proposals were not flawed enough, CBS News reports a previously unnoticed provision of the bill which makes a shambles of any privacy surrounding your federal tax returns. Under the House bill, the IRS is required to make available to the new government Health Choices Commissioner” established by the legislation and to each state health program all of your personal tax information. In a blog, CBSNews’ Declan McCullagh reports that “Section 431 (a) of the bill says that the IRS must divulge taxpayer identity information, including the filing status, the modified adjusted grow income, the number...