Fraud at Liberty Tax Service in Detroit Michigan?

CBS Detroit reports:


"The U.S. Justice Department is working to shut down five Liberty Tax offices in Detroit.

A complaint filed in federal court against franchise owner Craig Comer, of Royal Oak, says people at his Liberty Tax offices prepared tax returns that fraudulently overstate refunds and claimed refundable credits by using bogus dependents, inflated expenses and other false itemized deductions.

The Justice Departments says returns filed by the business from 2008 to 2013 have cost the U.S. Treasury about $4.5 million."


I guess one wonders, for seven years this preparer has been filing fraudulently tax returns, what took the authorities this long?  Amazing.  And what is the culpability of the Liberty Tax Service Franchiser in this?

Click here to read more.

Choose Your Tax Preparer Wisely

Here is the latest email from the IRS Tax Tips series:


If someone helps you do your taxes, you're not alone. The IRS asks you to choose your tax return preparer wisely – for good reason. You are responsible for the information on your income tax return. That’s true no matter who prepares your return. Here are ten tips to keep in mind when choosing a tax preparer:

1. Check the Preparer’s Qualifications. Use the IRS Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers with Credentials and Select Qualifications on IRS.gov. This tool can help you find a tax return preparer with the qualifications that you prefer. The Directory is a searchable and sortable listing of certain preparers registered with the IRS. It includes the name, city, state and zip code of:

• Attorneys.
• CPAs.
• Enrolled Agents.
• Enrolled Retirement Plan Agents.
• Enrolled Actuaries.
• Annual Filing Season Program participants. 

Attorneys, CPAs and enrolled agents can represent any client before the IRS in any situation. However, new rules apply to the rights of non-credentialed tax preparers to represent their clients before the IRS. Non-credentialed preparers without an Annual Filing Season Program – Record of Completion – may only prepare tax returns. The new rules do not allow them to represent clients before the IRS on any returns prepared and filed after December 31, 2015. Annual Filing Season Program participants can represent clients in limited situations. For more, visit IRS.gov and see the Understanding Tax Return Preparer Credentials and Qualifications page.

2. Check the Preparer’s History. Ask the Better Business Bureau about the preparer. Check for disciplinary actions and the license status for credentialed preparers. For CPAs, check with the State Board of Accountancy. For attorneys, check with the State Bar Association. For Enrolled Agents, go to IRS.gov and search for “verify enrolled agent status” or check the Directory.

3. Ask about Service Fees. Avoid preparers who base fees on a percentage of their client’s refund. Also avoid those who boast bigger refunds than their competition. Make sure that your refund goes directly to you – not into your preparer’s bank account.

4. Ask to E-file Your Return. Make sure your preparer offers IRS e-file. Paid preparers who do taxes for more than 10 clients generally must file electronically. The IRS has safely processed more than 1.5 billion e-filed tax returns.

5. Make Sure the Preparer is Available. You may want to contact your preparer after this year’s April 18 due date. Avoid fly-by-night preparers.

6. Provide Records and Receipts. Good preparers will ask to see your records and receipts. They’ll ask questions to figure your total income, tax deductions, credits, etc. Do not use a preparer who will e-file your return using your last pay stub instead of your Form W-2. This is against IRS e-file rules.

7. Never Sign a Blank Return. Don’t use a tax preparer that asks you to sign a blank tax form.

8. Review Your Return Before Signing. Before you sign your tax return, review it and ask questions if something is not clear. Make sure you’re comfortable with the accuracy of the return before you sign it.

9. Ensure the Preparer Signs and Includes Their PTIN. All paid tax preparers must have a Preparer Tax Identification Number, or PTIN. By law, paid preparers must sign returns and include their PTIN. Be sure you get a copy of your return.

10. Report Abusive Tax Preparers to the IRS. Most tax return preparers are honest and provide great service to their clients; however, some preparers are dishonest. Report abusive tax preparers and suspected tax fraud to the IRS. Use Form 14157, Complaint: Tax Return Preparer. If you suspect a return preparer filed or changed the return without your consent, you should also file Form 14157-A, Return Preparer Fraud or Misconduct Affidavit. You can get these forms on IRS.gov at any time.

Each and every taxpayer has a set of fundamental rights they should be aware of when dealing with the IRS. These are your Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Explore your rights and our obligations to protect them on IRS.gov

Billion Dollar Advice From Mark Cuban

In light of the record Power Ball lottery, todays email from our friends at Tax Coach had these words of advice from Mark Cuban:

America is the land of plenty, which means, among other things, that there are plenty of billionaires to go around. 536 of them, to be exact, according to Forbes magazine. (Wait – GoPro stock just tanked last night, so take founder Nick Woodman off that list. Easy come, easy go…) There are still a few old-fashioned heirs and heiresses on that list. But more and more, it's made up of the “working” rich… tech titans, Wall Street honchos, media barons, and other entrepreneurial success stories.

 

Some of those billionaires really seem to enjoy their fortunes. I think Oracle CEO Larry Ellison ($47.5B) gets a kick out of winning the America’s Cup and buying Hawaiian islands. Oprah Winfrey ($3.1B) loves being Oprah. And think what you will of Donald Trump ($10B? $2B?), he obviously gets out of bed ready to have a good time every morning, and obviously doesn’t care what anyone else thinks about it.

 

Other billionaires seem to lead grim, unsatisfying lives. Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson ($26B) is the closest we have in the real world to a James Bond villain. I’d be surprised to learn he’s not assembling a private army, complete with nuclear-tipped missiles, somewhere out in the Nevada desert.

 

At $3B, Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank panelist Mark Cuban isn’t the richest billionaire. But I think he may have more fun than anyone else on the list. As Forbes puts it:

 

“Cuban sold his video portal, Broadcast.com, to Yahoo for $5.7 billion in 1999. He has since spent the last decade and a half doing just about anything he wants. His latest antics include starring as the president of the U.S. in the movie Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! and selling Dallas Mavericks merchandise with an image of his likeness using a urinal... When Rolling Stone asked Cuban what would surprise people about being a billionaire, he responded, ‘Nothing. It's f------ amazing and off the charts.’”

 

Earlier this week, Cuban offered some advice for anyone taking the newest route to ten-figure riches – winning the $1.5 billion Power ball lottery. (Sadly, there appear to be three winners, which means splitting the prize to an almost penurious $500 million each.) Here’s what he told the Dallas Morning News:

• Hire a tax attorney first.
• Don’t take the lump sum. You don’t want to blow it all in one spot.
• If you weren’t happy yesterday you won’t be happy tomorrow. It’s money. It’s not happiness.
• If you were happy yesterday, you are going to be a lot happier tomorrow. It’s money. Life gets easier when you don’t have to worry about the bills.
• Tell all your friends and relatives no. They will ask. Tell them no. If you are close to them, you already know who needs help and what they need. Feel free to help SOME, but talk to your accountant before you do anything and remember this, no one needs 1m dollars for anything. No one needs 100k for anything. Anyone who asks is not your friend.
• You don’t become a smart investor when you win the lottery. Don’t make investments. You can put it in the bank and live comfortably. Forever. You will sleep a lot better knowing you won’t lose money.

All excellent and entertaining advice, right? Sure captures the imagination. But wait, what was that again, back at the beginning? The very first thing on the list? Get some good tax advice first! And later, talk to your accountant first! Yeah, that’s right, one of the richest guys in America is telling new arrivals to the pot o’ gold that taxes and accounting and financial advice matter.

 

It’s been hard to avoid talking about the lottery the last week or so as the payout climbed to record heights. I was shopping at Philadelphia’s famed Reading Market on Monday, and the clerk at the meat stand told anyone who would listen that we wouldn’t see him again come Thursday morning. (Sadly for him, the winning tickets were sold in California, Florida, and Tennessee, which means he’s probably manning his cash register as I write these words.)

 

I’ve said before that one of the biggest challenges of marketing tax planning is getting prospects to think about taxes in the first place. Most people don’t think about taxes very often, mainly because they don’t want to think about taxes. And it’s always easier to join the conversation your prospects are already having than it is to start a new conversation about whatever it is you want to discuss. 

 

But when people are already talking about income, like big lottery payouts, it’s easy to redirect the conversation to your value. When your prospect mentions shares their Powerball-fueled dreams, just ask them if they’ve thought about how much the IRS will get. Keep planting similar seeds then let them grow until your prospect is ready to sit down with you for a plan.

 

Increasing your small business cash flow by using 10 awesome applications...suggestions from Inc. Magazine

The choices are growing and their power is increasing.

Gene Marks writes in Inc. magazine:


"Of all the choices available, here are 10 great mobile apps that will help increase your company's cash flow too.
Basecamp. A good customer relationship management (CRM) application is important for finding and nurturing customers and prospects. But a good, mobile project manager will keep all deadlines and jobs on track, whether they're for customers or just internal. And that's what Basecamp does, with tasks, Gant charts, alerts, workflows and other team building and communication tools. With Basecamp, your projects will finish on time and with better results and your bank account will show the results.

DocuSign. Ever since my company began using this service we've seen our sales cycle decrease substantially and our cash flow improve. With DocuSign, our quotes, contracts and service agreements are uploaded and immediately sent, with a link, to our customers for their e-signature. No more printing, converting, faxing, mailing and e-mailing. No more undelivered messages, bouncebacks, wrong recipients, bad addresses or missed communications. Our clients receive, review, click their approval and everything's legal and ready to invoice.

Feedly. Knowledge is power and with Feedly, a mobile newsreader, you've got all the knowledge you need right on your smartphone and it's updated every second. I create categories in my Feedly app to bring me up to the minute news on products, services, technologies and the latest developments in my industry. And OK, I'm also interested in what the Kardashians are up to too, OK? With Feedly, I'm able to answer customer questions, bring them the most recent information and know what my competitors (and Kim and Chloe) are doing. I help bring my customers information about their business, their industry and the economy that they often don't have time to learn. This helps me stay one step ahead and provide a value added service that people continue to pay me for.
 
Insightly. Insightly is a powerful and fast growing cloud and mobile based customer relationship management (CRM) application that will enable your sales team to track their sales, forecasts, opportunities, follow-ups, contacts, notes and calendar from whatever device they choose. With Insightly, you'll find potential sales that were once lost will stop falling through the cracks and your mobile team will be up to date on their prospects and customers."

Read more by clicking on this link.