It’s the culmination of income tax season when the late filers begin to lose sleep over completing their returns. Maybe you just procrastinate, as many taxpayers would rather have a root canal than work on their tax return. Maybe you have anxiety over where your return will come out … refund or payment? Uncertainty abounds. And if you attract attention from the Feds, you may not be out of the woods for years to come.
Add growing fraud to the mix. The scams get more obnoxious every year. Among the most popular scams are phonies who call or email you, claiming they’re from the IRS and that you owe them a lot of money. They use the threat of jail time unless you pay up immediately! Just for the record, the IRS will not call or email you. They use the US Postal Service when demanding your attention.
And you procrastinators? You may find out that someone else was far more eager to file your return than you are and submitted a false return in your name. They collected a nifty refund for themselves and will let you explain to the Federal gumshoes how it really wasn’t you. It can take nine months or more to get that little matter straightened out. No doubt you have that activity scheduled into your To-Do list.
Unscrupulous tax preparers shouldn’t go unmentioned. The tax code is so complex that more than 60 percent of Americans must turn to professionals to file their income tax. Tax experts say you should undertake a research effort comparable to hiring a new employee before you select a tax preparer. Remember you’ll turn over to your tax preparer all kinds of personal data which would be quite valuable to assorted criminals. That’s a comforting thought, isn’t it?
Phony charities, offshore banks accounts, the infamous Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). All are products of our tax code that keeps an army of lawyers, reviewers, auditors, and others fully employed deciphering the complexity.
The most shameful scam isn’t the miscreants trying to empty your wallet. It’s the complexity of the code itself that gives rise to these schemes. Wouldn’t the FairTax® be a lot simpler? And you wouldn’t need all those sleeping pills. You probably pay sales tax every day and never give it a second thought. It’s easy, simple, and transparent.
Write, call, email, or go see your Congressperson and Senators and tell them to get moving on some real tax reform – The FairTax. In the meantime, please consider helping Georgians for Fair Taxation in our fight to help you take back control of your money by making a donation today. Click the button below to make your donation!
