Last week, I wrote about some of the tax issues surrounding education. Little did I know that at the same time, taxes and education were again mixing together into the latest tax scam.

The IRS recently released a warning about telephone scammers calling and making demands for the payment of non-existent taxes, like the “Federal Student Tax.” This isn’t a new tactic, but seems to play a little stronger this time of year (and the scammers apparently know this).

I can’t believe how often I get to write about the latest potential tax scam. Because of that I don’t want to get too in depth here, but remember the biggest key in every attempted scam:

The IRS will NEVER contact you via phone first. You will first receive a notice in the mail of taxes owed before the agency chooses to contact you in another manner. If the first you hear of a tax bill owed is over the phone, hang up, it is not real.

This does give me a little chance to talk about survey results released earlier this month by the Journal of Accountancy and The Tax Adviser about tax-related identity theft.

In a potentially scary number, 59 percent of CPAs reported that they had a client who experienced tax identity theft. The more one gets into those numbers, though, the less frightening they are.

First, most respondents said that only a small amount of clients were affected. There were also a significant portion of clients who were aware of the problem before they filed, so it was not necessarily an issue with tax filing itself, but their information being obtained elsewhere and then used in a scam.

Finally, the amount of people who found it very difficult to deal with this problem through the IRS was very small. 

So let this be a warning that a bit of caution is always good when it comes to protecting your personal information. Don’t think that you can just be lazy when it comes to such measures.

Let it also be a warning about how it could pay to be vigilant about your finances. By staying on top of things, you can know when problems arise, end them quickly, and be in the group that finds it easy to move on. No one wants to be that constant when it comes to mundane tasks like bookkeeping, but there are clear benefits to it.

And if it is REALLY something you can’t imagine doing, well you know who would love to help. Contact us today if there is anything we could do to help ease this burden.

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Also from the recent IRS file, comes news that user fees taxpayers must pay to enter installment agreements to pay off tax bills could be going up starting in the new year.

First, if you have an old tax bill that needs to be paid, it is ALWAYS better to get to work on paying it off than putting it off. The less penalties and interest you are charged, the less you have to pay overall and the sooner the stress of it starts to wane.

But if you do have a bill lingering over you, let this be serve as an even greater impetus to get to work on taking care of it. Nothing good comes from ignoring it and a (legitimate) bill from the IRS WILL NOT go away.