JK Harris, a company which calls itself “the nation’s largest tax resolution company,” recently settled agreements with state officials in 18 states after receiving numerous complaints that the company did not live up to its advertised claims. Most of the complaints came as a result of consumers paying thousands of dollars up-front to have their IRS problem resolved for “pennies on the dollar to the IRS” through the IRS Offer-in-Compromise (OIC) program, yet not getting the results. As of 2006, only 12,000 OIC offers were accepted, down from 20,000 in 2004.

Congress has recently proposed a controversial bill that would require credit card companies to report payments made to merchants for credit card and debit card transactions to the IRS.
The idea is to catch tax cheats, but opponents of the bill doubt that such regulations would actually catch anyone cheating. Companies that cheat on their taxes usually do so by failing to report cash transactions, not credit card transactions.

As one of America's least sympathetic figures, Michael Vick, just got some more bads new – he can’t use his $80,000 Mercedes as payment for a debt. Why? Because a federal tax lien gives the IRS “first dibs” on that property.

Busting tax cheats pays well - just ask Heinrich Kieber. This former computer technician from the tiny country of Liechtenstein stole 3 CDs worth of banking data containing damning tax-skirting evidence against many of the world’s richest people. Twelve countries have paid him for the information, including the U.S., Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy. The stolen data has already led to the arrest of several prominent CEO’s in Germany, as well as to a Senate Subcommittee hearing of four wealthy U.S. citizens on Thursday, July 17th.

But only if they come forward to the IRS.

The IRS has a “deal” for approximately 20,000 wealthy tax cheats who have hidden income with the help of Swiss bank giant UBS: come clean now and you won’t go to prison. In June, UBS private banker, Bradley Birkenfeld, plead guilty to helping California real estate developer Igor Olenicoff hide $200 Million offshore. During the trial, Birkinfeld revealed that UBS held “undeclared" U.S. accounts totaling $20 Billion. Olenicoff plead guilty and is now paying $52 Million in back taxes, interest and penalties. Now the IRS is on the hunt for more, sending up a “warning shot” with the issue of a “John Doe” summons, and offering to let tax cheats off the hook for criminal charges if they’ll turn themselves in.

On March 14, 2006, in Greensboro, NC, Baxter Worth Paschal, Jr. was sentenced to 16 months, followed by one year of supervised release. Paschal was indicted on one count of obstructing and impeding administration of the tax laws.

Actually, I'm more inclined to believe ex-Sen. Phil Gramm's observation that the current recession is more "emotional" than '"actual." But just in case I'm wrong, as Americans struggle to make ends meet in a sluggish economy, many will be tempted to dip into the money that they should pay to Uncle Sam. If people are forced to choose between paying for gas, food, the house payment or the IRS...they’ll pay for the necessities and deal with the IRS later.

We can expect to see increased incidences of:

Most people don’t deal with their IRS problems until something ugly happens (like tax liens, seizure of property, bank accounts and other extreme financially-devastating measures for which the IRS is infamous).
These people have one thing in common – they’re afraid.

Did you know the IRS can take anyone’s Social Security to satisfy a tax debt? It’s true. If you owe money to the IRS, and you are receiving Social Security benefits, the IRS can take up to 15% of your Social Security payments to satisfy your tax debt. Prior to 1996, there was a $750/month “off limits” amount that had to be left for the Social Security recipient. However, that changed with the introduction of the Federal Payment Levy Program, which allowed for 15% of the total monthly payment to be collected - regardless of the amount.

According to RealtyTrac.com, foreclosures in April 2008 involved 243,353 homes nationwide – a 65% increase over April 2007. Plus, in this desperate U.S. economy, for every home actually foreclosed on, there are 5-10 other homeowners hanging on by their fingertips, just trying to keep their homes. With higher prices on gas and food and no increase in income, thousands of broke, desperate Americans will start to dip into the 30.8% on average that Federal, State & Local Governments are taking from their paychecks – causing another more formidable problem – the IRS. Surprisingly, it is during this otherwise bleak period when a person has nothing – no equity, no savings, and/or no retirement accounts – that it’s the BEST time to resolve their problems with the IRS.