The financial news that actually matters
Explains tax audits, IRS enforcement actions, penalties, compliance rules, and legal financial obligations. It helps readers understand risk areas and how to respond to audits.
Most people know that a bank reports large cash transactions to the government once they cross $10,000. What far fewer understand is that deliberately keeping deposits under that line — breaking $12,000 into two trips of $6,000, say — can itself be a federal crime, even when every dollar is honestly earned. Older Americans who…
The property list reads like an auction catalog: two Ferraris, a Range Rover, mansions in Miami Beach and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the contents of several financial accounts. All of it is being surrendered by a 37-year-old Miami man who admitted he lied on his tax returns. Beyond the eye-catching cars, the case is…
A tax-season formality could soon carry real legal weight for millions of families that claim the government’s largest refundable credits. Under a rule proposed by the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, anyone seeking the refundable portion of the child tax credit, the earned income tax credit, the adoption credit or the American Opportunity…
Most Americans assume that seizing a retiree’s Social Security requires a judge, a hearing, and a court order. When the creditor is the federal government collecting unpaid taxes, that assumption is wrong. The Internal Revenue Service can reach directly into a monthly Social Security benefit and skim 15 percent off the top through an automated…
Social Security benefits carry strong protections against most creditors, and that leads many retirees to assume the monthly check is untouchable. It is not when the debt is owed to the federal government. The IRS has a standing tool to reach retirement benefits for unpaid taxes, and it can start reducing a check without ever…
Most retirees treat a Social Security check as money that no one can touch. When the debt is unpaid federal taxes, that assumption falls apart. Through a collection program that runs largely on autopilot, the IRS can skim up to 15 percent off a monthly benefit to chip away at a delinquent tax bill. It…
A Miami businessman who once drove a pair of Ferraris and held property from Miami Beach to the U.S. Virgin Islands is scheduled to learn his prison sentence this week, closing a tax-fraud case that prosecutors say concealed nearly $35 million from the federal government. The reckoning carries a price tag few fraud defendants ever…
A notice from the Internal Revenue Service demanding several years of unpaid taxes can be one of the most frightening pieces of mail a retiree receives, especially for someone living on a fixed Social Security check who fears a bank levy or garnished income. What many older filers do not realize is that the tax…
A guilty plea in a South Florida courtroom has put a spotlight on how the government pursues high-dollar tax fraud. Daniel Liburdi, a 37-year-old Miami man, admitted to filing a false tax return and agreed to repay the IRS more than $34.8 million, while forfeiting a collection of luxury property that included two Ferraris and…
A three-year flight from a federal health-care case ended with an overseas arrest and a false identity document, according to prosecutors. The arrest matters beyond one defendant: the underlying allegations show how genetic-testing promotions can turn a Medicare number into hundreds of millions of dollars in claims while patients see little of the money changing…
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