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Tax Protestor Dummies 2 > Cases
("Damn, We Lost Again!
And why is it
that people who sell
tax protestor materials file their tax returns anyway . . .")
March 29, 2001
Hearing: "Taxpayer Beware: Schemes, Scams and Cons"
Date/time: Thursday, April 5, 2001, at 10 a.m.
Location: 215 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Description:
[1] The Internet provides an ideal venue for con artists
to promote schemes aimed at tax avoidance. Both tax practitioners
and the Internal Revenue Service agree that Internet-based
tax fraud scams are on a sharp increase. They believe hundreds
of thousands of taxpayers are either participating in these
schemes or are seriously considering participating in them
by receiving literature and attending seminars. Common themes
for these scams are trust arrangements to illegally shelter
trust income from taxes and other means of hiding assets.
More off-beat scams include quick minister licensing to illegally
claim tax benefits, as well as individuals establishing their
own countries to seek to shelter assets and income.
[2] Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Committee on Finance,
will convene a hearing to educate taxpayers about tax fraud
scams before the April 15 tax filing deadline. He also will
explore ways to improve the federal government?s policing
of Internet-based tax schemes, scams and cons.
[3] Witnesses include a former seller of tax scams who now
runs a web site alerting taxpayers to the scam he helped
to run and a federal prison inmate who participated in a
tax scheme and is now serving a 27-month prison sentence
for failing to report $1.5 million in taxable income to the
IRS. He deposited receipts from his dental practice into
fraudulent trusts. In addition, the committee will hear from
the IRS commissioner, as well as the nation?s leading private
sector experts on Internet-based tax fraud.
[4] A final witness list will be available later.
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