Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Tax Scams Cometh

As if the pain of filing our taxes wasn’t enough we now have to experience the onslaught of nefarious attempts to exploit our anxiety about correctly filing and paying our income taxes.

I’ve already received dozens of spam and phishing emails over the course of the past few months from evil doers - probably some kid in Russia - trying to convince me to accept their offer to help me receive more money in my federal income tax return. After all, the word stimulus is all over the news and those of us struggling to stay afloat in this wretched economy would love nothing better than some good financial news right now.

But as they say - BUYER BEWARE. All is not as it seems.

To that end, the IRS has a list of what they fondly call their Dirty Dozen where they highlight tax scams. They do this every year - here’s the link for the 2009 list:

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=206370,00.html

(Note: If you have problems with the link just search on 2009 Dirty Dozen at www.irs.gov.)

The scams range from Fuel Tax Credit and Hiding Income Offshore to Abuse of Charitable Organizations and Deductions. As you can tell from the topics some of these might even seem plausible to most people, after all, there are tax benefits to donating money to charities and even some energy tax credits. But these scams are fiction. They take a kernel of sometimes truthful information and twist it to get a certain outcome. It’s not lost on me that as fiction writers we often attempt to do the same thing.

To educate and protect yourself against tax scams do check out the IRS website, particularly the link above. But when you find a good piece of fiction to read, enjoy the ride because there is one major difference between fiction writers and scammers - we let you know up front that we’re taking you for a ride, and one we hope you’ll enjoy and come out on the other end of that ride feeling that you got your moneys worth for the price of the read. So, keep your fictional experiences to reading a good book.

5 comments:

Morgan Mandel said...

I keep all my records in a container, then sort them and make lists and bring it all to the accountant to figure it out. It's way beyond my capabilities now. One good thing is my writing expenses are handy around this time.

Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com

L. Diane Wolfe said...

A scam for every occasion...

Someone should write a book!

L. Diane Wolfe
www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com
www.spunkonastick.net
www.thecircleoffriends.net

Marilyn Meredith a.k.a. F. M. Meredith said...

Tax time is always stressful. And it's surprising how many people fall for these scams.

Marilyn a.k.a. F. M. Meredith

Deb Larson said...

Good advice Terri!
Buyer Beware is always good to remember.
Thanks for sharing.
DL Larson

Rob Wallker said...

Old as Rome...how do they say it
Caveat beware or some-pin like that or what PT Barnum said -- "A sucker born every day." Thanks Terri...one can never be too careful. I filed my taxes this year running like hell from the loca H&R Block which cost me wayyyyyy too much last year-a scam in itself. Paying for their advertising. This year I found The Tax Booth -- liked the name. And it is about the size of a phone booth but it cost me one third of what HR fleeced me out of.