I HATE the IRS

[jdmc1973]

Here's the deal....I owe as of today $3060.86 in back taxes. I won about $20K back in 2005 at an Indian casino and they didn't take taxes out, so I saved about $1500 back to pay the tax owed that year. Well, it wasn't enough and so I set up an installment agreement with the devil and paid them $300 a month for several months until I couldn't pay that any more. Then I set up another agreement with them to pay $75 a month, which I did until I filed BK7 and I got a letter from them saying don't pay us, wait to hear from us. So, after I was discharged I decided to be proactive and called them. Well, even though I've paid close to $2000 toward my original balance, because of penalties and interest that accrues DAILY, I still owe them around the same amount I owed when I filed originally! They STILL accrued during my bankruptcy!

Is there anything I can do for this crap?! I mean I know they're going to take my tax rebate of $600, but I mean seriously...DAILY penalties and interest? They're like a loan shark.

To quote from a movie....Me to the IRS - "I hate you and your a** face too!"

[cali girl]

You know, my husband says that the IRS are just a corporate form of GANGSTERS!!! I mean, they run in a clique, they rob you for your money, and muscle you if you owe them. It's mafia/gang tactics at it's best!

I wish I could give you some advice. I would say talk to your BK attorney and see if he/she has any tips... but my attorney was NEVER around when I needed him. I wish you the best though! Be sure to post if you come to a decent solution on this, just in case someone else is going through the same thing.

[BKOnce]

IRS ($$) -->> Bush ($$) -->> Terrorist War (Afghan$$) -->> Oil War (Iraq$$).

[yoyoma51]

$1 trillion (so far) in Iraq.

The money has to come from somewhere...

[cali girl]

Exactly!! The nation is so concerned about gang violence, they need to start from within! Aren't we supposed to lead by example???

[HRx]

Have you ever been to the IRS building before? It has more security than the White House!! Not hard to see why right? The tactics the IRS uses to collect past due taxes, etc ain't no better than a subprime lender/corrupt collection agency.

[jdmc1973]

I've been to the one in DC, but not the one here in Dallas. My skin crawls every time I see those three letters.

[lrprn]

There was a program on one of the cable channels over the weekend about IRS abuses. Horrible, awful stories were told by normal, everyday individuals caught up in the IRS's investigative dark side.

Midnight raids on homes with doors bashed in and guns held to innocent people's heads, including young teens of the family, on the strength of one false complaint filed by an unreliable source. Wives with no knowledge whose husbands cheated on taxes and skipped the country, so the IRS came after the wife with a vengeance. Most paid for decades, lost their homes, paid off the original amount, but still owe the IRS money because of penalties. Awful, awful stories of a department so gone so drunk with power that they lost sight of what was ethical and common sense. Broke my heart to listen to these people describe how their credit, their reputations, and their lives and the lives of their children had been ruined without a single apology, let alone any reparations for mistakes the IRS made.

Here's the worst part - a story in the New York Times came out today that despite IRS protestations it isn't true, it's been proven that the IRS's investigative arm has significantly reduced their investigations of big Fortune 500-type companies to focus amost solely on the individual taxpaper and small businesses.

Here's the story -

I.R.S. Scrutiny of Big Firms Plummets, Study Says
By LYNNLEY BROWNING
Published: April 14, 2008

Most Americans dread tax season. But corporate America seems to have less to fear from the Internal Revenue Service than it used to, according to a new study.

The I.R.S.’s scrutiny of the nation’s biggest companies is at a 20-year low, according to the study, conducted by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, or TRAC, a research group affiliated with Syracuse University.

The study, made public Sunday, points to “a historic collapse in audits.” It found that major corporations — defined as those with assets of at least $250 million — have about a one in four chance of being audited, down from about three in four in 1990.

For Americans with incomes above $100,000, the chances of being audited in 2006 were 1 in 59. Above $1 million, the odds increased to 1 in 16.

The study’s findings stand in sharp contrast to the tough talk coming out of the I.R.S. in recent years. The report suggests that the agency is shifting its focus away from big corporations to smaller companies, private partnerships and other private entities, a move that tax lawyers said was consistent with trends they were seeing.

But I.R.S. officials, who reviewed the report before its release, said Friday that TRAC had misinterpreted a basic shift in corporate America in recent years.

Companies of all sizes, as well as wealthy individuals, have embraced the use of partnerships and other opaque entities in an effort to minimize taxes, the officials said. Sometimes those arrangements cross the line into tax abuse; Enron used hundreds of them to commit fraud. Because large companies increasingly use such partnerships, the I.R.S. has stepped up scrutiny of these entities.

“These aren’t mom-and-pop grocery stores we’re auditing,” said Barry Shott, a deputy I.R.S. commissioner. The I.R.S. has not reduced its scrutiny of large corporations, he said. Instead, it is focusing on the private partnerships some of these companies use to avoid paying taxes.

Mr. Shott said that the I.R.S. supplied data to TRAC but that the group, which gathers information from government agencies under the Freedom of Information Act, had misinterpreted it. TRAC, which has gone to court to force the I.RS. to turn over more detailed data on audits, stood by its findings.

While the report singled out the I.R.S.’s increased focus on partnerships, it also said that the agency was increasingly focusing on smaller corporations, or those with less than $50 million in assets. Such companies require less time and money to investigate — and the I.R.S. has long complained that it is underfunded. Such investigations, however, typically bring in fewer unpaid tax dollars than audits of large corporations.

The focus on smaller companies upset some tax professionals.

“I’m still trying to find my jaw on the ground from the finding that audit rates for the big boys are plummeting,” said Dean Zerbe, the national managing director of Alliant Group, a tax planning company. While corporations account for a small percentage of all taxes paid to federal coffers, their share of the total has been rising in recent years.

Last year, corporations of all sizes accounted for nearly 23 percent of all federal income taxes paid, or around $395 billion, according to previously released data from TRAC. That is up significantly from 2001, when corporations accounted for 13.7 percent of all taxes paid, an all-time low. Individuals paid the rest.

Despite the shift in focus, the I.R.S. is bringing in more money from corporations of all sizes through audits. Last year it brought in more than $59 billion in unpaid tax revenues, according to agency statistics. That is nearly twice the level of 1998 and is consistent with a steady climb since then.

Larry Langdon, who ran the I.R.S.’s large and midsize business division from 1999 to 2003, called those amounts “phenomenal” and said that the number of dollars brought in, rather than the type or size of company audited or the amount of time spent on audits, might be a better indicator of how well the I.R.S. is doing.

Sad. Very sad. This IRS "us vs. them" take-no-prisoners attitude is so pervasive inside the agency, it will take years to turn internal attitudes around if they even can be changed.

[CATCHMEIFYOUCAN]

Gambling And Taxes

Here's the deal....I owe as of today $3060.86 in back taxes. I won about $20K back in 2005 at an Indian casino and they didn't take taxes out

I'm just curious why they didn't take taxes out? Did you not tell them too? (In 2006 I owed about $4000 plus penalties and interest (it was a rough year having defaulted on my 401k from one job just to file Ch7 (I defaulted on $12,000!), I got a payment plan of $100 a month from the IRS - I got lucky and paid the fuggers off w/in 3 months of the plan). Last year 2007 I hit for about $30,000 (not all at once) a couple thousand here and there (at the casinos). I made them take out at least HALF of my winnings (each jackpot) and apply to the FED (which I didn't do the previous year - so I thought I'd change my game up a bit). That is more than enough to cover Uncle Sam, plus some. My take on this was I can write off my wins as long as my losses cover it. By the time I filed I actually got back $4000. Just an idea if you still gamble, have them take out the taxes anyways plus some, maybe you'll see some of it back next year!

, so I saved about $1500

I always deduct at least 28% from the wins.

back to pay the tax owed that year. Well, it wasn't enough and so I set up an installment agreement with the devil and paid them $300 a month for several months until I couldn't pay that any more. Then I set up another agreement with them to pay $75 a month, which I did until I filed BK7 and I got a letter from them saying don't pay us, wait to hear from us. So, after I was discharged I decided to be proactive and called them. Well, even though I've paid close to $2000 toward my original balance, because of penalties and interest that accrues DAILY, I still owe them around the same amount I owed when I filed originally! They STILL accrued during my bankruptcy!

Is there anything I can do for this crap?! I mean I know they're going to take my tax rebate of $600, but I mean seriously...DAILY penalties and interest?

YUP, they suck so pay them off sooner IF YOU CAN !

They're like a loan shark.

To quote from a movie....Me to the IRS - "I hate you and your a** face too!"

[BKOnce]

I wonder what kind of game is so easy to win big$$ like that?

[rrockinggramma]

perhaps you should try to do a settlement with them, through one of those tax attorney's?

[cali girl]

I wonder what kind of game is so easy to win big$$ like that?

LOL! you and me both!

[jdmc1973]

I didn't have them take it out and I should have, but that was the first time I'd ever won anything like that and was like "well, I can just save some back and that'll take care of it"...WRONG! LOL

Well, I would offer to do an Offer In Compromise, but jeez just the application fee is $150 and that doesn't even go towards the tax you owe them! I'm hoping for nice bonuses the next three quarters to pay those buggers off.

I haven't been gambling since my discharge...I want to wait out the 180 days from filing just in case I win big!

And to answer BKOnce....believe it or not, it was on a $.05 slot machine. $20,083.53. At the time it was tied to a bingo card on the screen(it was in OK), and the jackpot paid if the first four numbers drawn were the four corners on your card....and that's what happened. My sister was really mad, cuz she'd just gave me that machine about 10 minutes before that. HEHEHEHE

[MajorMike]

Did you lose ANY money at ALL during that year?? Did you play with your slot card???
You can write off any loss up to the amount you won!
If you win $5,000, but show a loss throughout the year of $3,000, you only have to pay tax on $2,000. Our local Indian casino doesn't take taxes out either. We won $50,000 several years ago but we lost that much as well during the year and didn't have to pay taxes on any of it. My brother and I were bad bad bad, but that's not what got my wife and I to where we are.
Anyway, it isn't the IRS's fault! Blame your politicians. They only do what they're told!

[MajorMike]

I wonder what kind of game is so easy to win big$$ like that?

We won ours on a 50 cent slot machine. It cost us 3 spins or $4.50 before it hit.
You never know.....