I know that tax season is over and no one really wants to think about taxes anymore. Trust us, we feel this more than most (although I am pretty sure that my blood-versus-caffeine levels finally returned to normal last week). Yet there is a need to speak of taxes and the IRS even here as we start the month of June.

It seems almost every week comes with a new scam warning from the IRS. One of the latest came around last week as the IRS advised of phony phone calls telling potential victims that they needed to pay a “Federal Student Tax,” a non-existent tax.

Scams often seem to target the elderly, but this one goes in the opposite direction. It makes sense, though, to target students and recent graduates, people who possibly haven’t filed an in-depth tax return and have limited knowledge of tax law.

One has to imagine that this dynamic is also behind another recent criminal trend, scammers claiming that people need to pay their back taxes via an iTunes gift card.

I think it is important for everyone to remind themselves of some signs of scams the IRS has posted. (Pay special attention to the first one, which should immediately raise your hackles if you receive a call from an apparent tax collector.) The agency will never:

·                   Call to demand immediate payment over the phone, nor will the agency call about taxes owed without first having mailed you a bill.

·                   Threaten to immediately bring in local police or other law-enforcement groups to have you arrested for not paying.

·                   Demand that you pay taxes without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal the amount they say you owe.

·                   Require you to use a specific payment method for your taxes, such as a prepaid debit card.

·                   Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone.

Also this week, I wanted to visit an article from inc.com that appeared last week and relates to many of the topics I wrote about in this space over the last month. First, it stresses how it is important to make employees feel like they have a stake in a company, and that one’s performance changes if that dynamic exists (remember Zappos?). The article makes a comparison between being a renter and a homeowner. You want your employees to feel invested in how the operation is operating and not just operate like they are only there for a short period of time.

The article also stresses the importance of having open books to achieve this dynamic (remember the increased access technology can provide?) The more that employees feel you are being open with them about numbers, ones that employees don’t always get to see, the more trust is built. Openness means that one does not always have to agree with every decision made by a business, but employees can at least feel that those acts are based on facts.

Unlike those who call you demanding tax payments of which you were never aware, which are never facts.