Fraud - Tax Fraud
In this article we're going to go over a type of fraud that can
hit you in multiple directions. This is tax fraud.
There is an old saying that what goes around comes around. Tax
fraud may be the first thing the gods were talking about when
they came up with that one. See, a person who commits tax fraud
may very well end up being a victim himself. We'll explain how
shortly.
So what exactly is tax fraud? Simply put, tax fraud is the
attempt of an individual or corporation to evade having to pay
income taxes to the federal or state government, or at least an
attempt to reduce their tax burden. This is probably the most
common type of fraud in the United States today.
The truth is, many people engage in tax fraud to some degree.
Some just engage in it more so than others. The mildest of
offenders may report a little more charitable deduction than
what they really gave to their church, Salvation Army, or local
police department. While the amount of money they save may be a
relative drop in the bucket, it is still fraud just the same.
Others may report medical expenses they paid that were
eventually reimbursed to them. Because this is very hard to
check most of these deductions go unnoticed.
But the big problems are the ones caused by the very wealthy and
the large corporations. These are the people the government rely
on for a bulk of their income and these are the people who, when
income tax time comes around, end up paying less than some folks
who don't have two nickels to rub together. The variety of
schemes these wealthy people and corporations use to evade
paying taxes is numerous to say the least, from bogus or greatly
inflated entertainment expenses to bogus tax shelters.
And that is where sometimes the practice of these frauds comes
back to bite these people. All too often when an individual or
corporation commits tax fraud through some tax shelter scheme
what ultimately ends up happening way too often is the person or
company offering the scheme takes the individual's or
corporation's money and runs off with it, never to be seen
again. This is where the saying what goes around comes around
comes in. The individual or corporation can't report the crime
because they had intended to commit a crime themselves. So what
happens is they have to eat their loss. Some would say that they
got their just desserts. Unfortunately the number of individuals
and corporations that get away with tax fraud far outnumber the
ones who get caught or end up having their money take an
unexpected trip to an overseas account.
There is really very little one can do about tax fraud as the
smart individuals and corporations are usually very good at
this. The only thing you can do if you suspect someone is
committing tax fraud is report this activity to the IRS. You can
do this by either calling their toll free number, mailing to
them or going to one of their walk in offices.