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Posts Tagged ‘social security’

It’s a long fall from professional athlete to (allegedly) ripping off identities in order to harvest fraudulent tax refunds, but these three guys appear to have pulled it off.

Former NY Giants defensive tackle William Joseph, Vikings running back Michael Bennett, and Patriots defensive tackle Louis Gachelin were allegedly part of a scheme to steal social security numbers and use the victims’ identities to file false tax returns claiming refunds.

Unfortunately, such deviousness is not an isolated incident:

A Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report indicated that through March 3, the IRS had identified more than 441,000 tax returns claiming $2.7 billion in fraudulent refunds and prevented the issuance of $2.6 billion (97 percent) of those fraudulent refunds.

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The WSJ’s Tax Report published a one-two punch of  articles containing year-end tax planning tips for today’s uncertain tax environment.

Lawmakers have a lengthy to-do list. The 2% Social Security payroll-tax cut for employees expires at the end of 2011. So do a host of other provisions, including a fix to keep the alternative minimum tax from expanding to millions more taxpayers in 2012, and an extension of the popular IRA charitable contribution for people older than 70½.

Other changes are set to take effect at the end of next year, including the expiration of the tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003. The top tax rate on wages would reset to 39.6% from 35%, and the top rate on long-term capital gains would rise to 20% from 15%. The special 15% rate on dividends would lapse, as would the current generous estate-tax provisions. As many 10 million lower-income families and individuals would also be restored to the tax rolls, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

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