Flickr image courtesy Chester Zoo under Creative Commons license.

Now that the New York Times has noticed, it’s official: “With Personal Data in Hand, Thieves File Early and Often.”  The IRS was obsessed with regulating and controlling honest preparers while the low-rent ID thieves were prying open the back door.

Yes. Do we require too many licenses, and are they too hard to get? (Gongol.com) The preparer regulation scheme is a classic example. It will raise consumer prices without improving the product. Meanwhile, the fisc is bleeding from ID theft, a completely different problem that caught the IRS flat-footed.

State Trend: Independent Tax Courts (TaxProf Blog).  I would like to see them here, but Iowa continues to rely on kangaroo justice for tax cases. 

Sometimes the best ideas are the simple ones, like this from TaxGrrrl:

But tax fraudsters today have learned that they can make big money by inflating tax credits and using stolen identities to collect even when they don’t pay into the system. In some instances, all they need is a Social Security Number.

So here’s my great advice: eliminate refundable tax credits. So simple. So easy. And I am sure that it would reduce tax fraud.

It would indeed.  The refundable first time homebuyer credit was a fraud pinata, and the earned income credit is notoriously fraud-ridden.

Going Concern: California Board of Accountancy Wants to Throw the Book at Mayer Hoffman McCann for City of Bell Audit

Robert D Flach was Buzzing over the long weekend.  Shockingly, he finds bad things to say about CPAs as tax preparers.

Linda Beale: Another US District Court finds no rational basis for DOMA treatment of same sex couples

Dan Meyer tells of a new guide to school district financial statements from the Government Accounting Standards Board.  It should be required reading for school board members.

TaxVox, the blog of the Tax Policy Center, seems to be down today.

News you can use: Dear Clients, The Guy At The Gym Who Runs All His Personal Expenses Through His Business Is Not a Role Model (Anthony Nitti)  Unless you believe in the idea of reverse role models.

Either I missed something in the paper over the weekend, or this pastor is disappointed.  Pastor Going to Trial for Tax Charges Predicts Jesus Will Come Today (5/27/12)

But then the actuaries will feel left out:  Romney Campaign Should Look At Public Accounting – Where The Really Incredibly Boring White Guys Are (Peter Pappas)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 29th, 2012 at 8:17 am and is filed under Tax Roundup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.