Of concern is the source of the lead sheets for these criminals. Is your tax guy outsourcing to India?
From Accounting today.
"A scammer who organized a scheme in
which taxpayers were threatened with calls purporting to come from the
Internal Revenue Service and the FBI demanding payment has been
sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Sahil Patel was sentenced to 175
months in prison and $1 million in forfeiture for his role in
organizing the U.S. side of a massive fraud and extortion ring run
through various “call centers” located in India, through which Patel and
his co-conspirators impersonated American law enforcement officials and
threatened victims with arrest and financial penalties unless those
victims made payments to avoid purported charges.
In addition to the prison sentence, Patel, 36, of Tatamy, Pa., was sentenced to three years of supervised release.
Patel pleaded guilty in January 2015
before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who imposed the sentence
Wednesday. “The nature of this crime robbed people of their identities
and their money in a way that causes people to feel they have been
almost destroyed,” said Hellerstein.
According to prosecutors,
from Dec. 2011 through the day of his arrest on Dec. 18, 2013, Patel
participated as a leader in a sophisticated scheme to intimidate and
defraud hundreds of innocent victims of hundreds of dollars apiece.
Throughout the course of the fraud, telephone call centers located in
India hired English-speaking employees to place telephone calls to
individuals living in the U.S.
Armed with long lists of potential
victims, referred to by Patel and his co-conspirators as “lead sheets,”
those India-based callers systematically placed thousands of calls to
individuals in the U.S. in the hopes of intimidating the call recipients
into providing a payment to the co-conspirators. To extort these
victims, the India-based callers impersonated law enforcement officials
of the FBI and IRS and threatened their victims with financial penalties
and arrest in connection with fabricated financial crimes.
“Sahil
Patel’s elaborate scheme involved impersonating law enforcement
officers and using intimidation and fear to bilk over a million dollars
from hundreds of unsuspecting victims,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney
Preet Bharara in a statement.
In order to receive funds in a
manner that would mask the identity of Patel and his co-conspirators,
the ring undertook several measures to anonymize itself, including by
using anonymized voice-over-internet technology, which was subscribed
under fraudulent names in order to give the appearance of being related
to U.S. law enforcement agencies.
Patel and his co-conspirators
also used several layers of wire transactions in order to conceal the
destination and nature of the extorted payments, which totaled at least
$1.2 million."
Friday, July 10, 2015
Monday, July 6, 2015
New Tax Penalty Starts Today on Small Business Health Insurance
From taxpro today:
"Small business groups are sounding a warning about an obscure Internal Revenue Service rule that takes effect Wednesday imposing heavy fines on small businesses for helping defray the cost of their workers’ insurance or medical expenses.
The National Federation of Independent Business said small businesses that get caught helping their workers buy insurance or pay medical bills can be fined 18 times more than larger employers that don’t provide coverage at all.
“It’s the biggest penalty that no one is talking about,” said NFIB policy director Kevin Kuhlman in a statement. “The penalty for compensating employees for healthcare-related expenses is enough to destroy most small businesses.”
Under the rule, which the NFIB noted appears nowhere in the Affordable Care Act, employers who do not offer a group health plan, but give their workers additional pay to compensate for the purchase of health insurance or direct medical expenses, can be fined $100 per day, per employee. Over the course of a year that can add up to $36,500 per employee, up to $500,000 in total. In contrast, the penalty on businesses for failing to comply with the employer mandate is only $2,000 per year.
The National Association for the Self-Employed, an advocacy group for the self-employed and micro-business community, is calling on the Treasury Department to immediately delay the policy until the end of the year in order for bipartisan legislation to passed through Congress to remedy the situation.
“Currently in Congress bipartisan legislation has been introduced that would fix this unintended consequence of the Affordable Care Act,” said NASE vice president for government relations and public affairs Katie Vlietstra. “The Treasury Department should immediately announce a delay in this rule until the end of the year in order for the legislative process to work and for small businesses to be spared the devastating effects this IRS rule could have across America’s Main Street.”
In February, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s announced a delay in the enforcement of the technical guidance issued in September 2013 for health reimbursement arrangements. The February delay expires July 1 and fines could begin to be imposed on businesses not meeting the requirement for group coverage plans that provide health care assistance for their employees through the use of traditional HRA accounts.
“It’s hard to believe Congress or the President intended to punish employers much more severely for actually helping their workers,” said Kuhlman. “Nevertheless, that’s the consequence and most small businesses don’t know it.”
Read more by clicking on this link.
"Small business groups are sounding a warning about an obscure Internal Revenue Service rule that takes effect Wednesday imposing heavy fines on small businesses for helping defray the cost of their workers’ insurance or medical expenses.
The National Federation of Independent Business said small businesses that get caught helping their workers buy insurance or pay medical bills can be fined 18 times more than larger employers that don’t provide coverage at all.
“It’s the biggest penalty that no one is talking about,” said NFIB policy director Kevin Kuhlman in a statement. “The penalty for compensating employees for healthcare-related expenses is enough to destroy most small businesses.”
Under the rule, which the NFIB noted appears nowhere in the Affordable Care Act, employers who do not offer a group health plan, but give their workers additional pay to compensate for the purchase of health insurance or direct medical expenses, can be fined $100 per day, per employee. Over the course of a year that can add up to $36,500 per employee, up to $500,000 in total. In contrast, the penalty on businesses for failing to comply with the employer mandate is only $2,000 per year.
The National Association for the Self-Employed, an advocacy group for the self-employed and micro-business community, is calling on the Treasury Department to immediately delay the policy until the end of the year in order for bipartisan legislation to passed through Congress to remedy the situation.
“Currently in Congress bipartisan legislation has been introduced that would fix this unintended consequence of the Affordable Care Act,” said NASE vice president for government relations and public affairs Katie Vlietstra. “The Treasury Department should immediately announce a delay in this rule until the end of the year in order for the legislative process to work and for small businesses to be spared the devastating effects this IRS rule could have across America’s Main Street.”
In February, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s announced a delay in the enforcement of the technical guidance issued in September 2013 for health reimbursement arrangements. The February delay expires July 1 and fines could begin to be imposed on businesses not meeting the requirement for group coverage plans that provide health care assistance for their employees through the use of traditional HRA accounts.
“It’s hard to believe Congress or the President intended to punish employers much more severely for actually helping their workers,” said Kuhlman. “Nevertheless, that’s the consequence and most small businesses don’t know it.”
Read more by clicking on this link.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Attract Local Customers Online in Under 60 Seconds
We recently wrote about this email in our client newsletter from the web site tapp.com.
"Want to attract local customers without tapping into your hilarious billboard budget? Make sure you’ve got the No. 1 online base covered:
Enter your business into local online directories.
It may sound obvious, but this step is often overlooked.
Making sure your business is listed locally lends credibility and helps
nearby customers find you.
First, check to see if you’re already listed. If not, add
your business and load up your entry with all relevant info, including
address, phone number, hours of operation, and photos. It’s worth
checking out each site’s paid options in order to up your listing views.
If an online directory allows users to review businesses, make sure you reach out to your customers and encourage them to comment on your service or product.
Earning great reviews should help your listing earn a more prominent spot and look more credible to potential customers.
If a directory allows for the addition of a unique ad, go for it. Stay short and sweet, and highlight what makes your business unique.
Make sure the link that you add to the directory takes the
potential customer to a page where they’ll get all the info they need."
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