Author: Gregory J. Cook, EA, CPA
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Phishing Scheme Involving W-2s
The Internal Revenue Service today issued an alert to payroll and human resources professionals to beware of an emerging phishing email scheme that purports to be from company executives and requests personal information on employees. The IRS has learned this scheme – part of the surge in phishing emails seen this year – already has…
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Title VIII of HR1314 – Changes to Social Security
After getting questions from two different clients on this subject, I thought I should research and share. This Act, known as the Security Benefit Protection and Opportunity Enhancement Act, was signed into law by the President as part of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 last November. It is my understanding that Section 831 Closure…
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Scam Calls and Emails Using IRS as Bait Persist
Scams using the IRS as a lure continue. They take many different forms. The most common scams are phone calls and emails from thieves who pretend to be from the IRS. They use the IRS name, logo or a fake website to try to steal your money. They may try to steal your identity too.…
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Taxpayer Authentication and Theft Protection
The Alabama Department of Revenue is requiring the following information from your Driver’s License this year; Driver’s License Number, State, Expiration Date and Issue Date. Last year TurboTax suspended the online filing of state tax returns after a massive spike in fraudulent refund requests, most of which, were tracked back to hijacked or fraudulently created…
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2016 Tax Season Opens January 19th
Following a review of the tax extenders legislation signed into law last week, the Internal Revenue Service announced today that the nation’s tax season will begin as scheduled on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. The IRS will begin accepting individual electronic returns that day. Although the IRS begins accepting returns on Jan. 19, we will begin…
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Holiday Schedule at the Office
Our office will be open on Monday and Tuesday December 21 and 22. We will be closed Wednesday through Friday for Christmas. We will reopen on Monday and Tuesday December 28 and 29, and will be closed Wednesday through Friday for the New Year’s Holiday. Should you need assistance over the holidays, I routinely check…
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Taxpayer Service at the IRS
When I received this email from a taxpayer last week, I realized that things are perhaps even worse than I imagined in my recent article. I need to set up an appointment to see you. IRS will not answer their phones, will not respond to emails, and sent my Overnight UPS correspondence back to me…
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Taxpayer Information Accessed at IRS
The IRS announced late yesterday that criminals used taxpayer-specific data acquired from non-IRS sources to gain unauthorized access to information on approximately 100,000 tax accounts through the IRS online “Get Transcript” application. This data included Social Security numbers, date of birth and street address. These third parties gained sufficient information from an outside source before trying…
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ALSEA 2015 Spring Seminar
The Alabama Society of Enrolled Agents held it’s Semi-Annual Board Meeting on Sunday May 17th in the Walker Boardroom at the Birmingham Marriott. We discussed all of the routine business that an organization like ours has to deal with, but our focus and much of our time was devoted to our continuing education programs. ALSEA puts…