Posted on 09/01/2009 7:19:50 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The Internal Revenue Service will expand a program designed to catch tax cheats that searches for inconsistencies between mortgage payments and income.
After prompting from an IRS auditor, the agency will study whether it should make greater use of data on mortgage-interest payments provided to it by banks. The IRS currently uses such data to send notices to non-filers who it believes should have filed a return.
The data could also be used to target for audits individuals who don't file tax returns, or who report less income than they paid in mortgage interest, according to a letter released Monday by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.
The IRS move will expand a regional research project on mortgage interest to a nationwide level by December 2011. Such initiatives, called Compliance Initiative Projects, typically involve examination of a small number of tax returns to evaluate new enforcement strategies.
Howard Levy, a tax attorney with the Cincinnati firm Voorhees Levy, said mortgage-interest data might be the best source of information the IRS has on small-business owners, such as roofers or carpenters, who are paid in cash and don't report all their income to the IRS.
"That [IRS Form] 1098 might be one of the few trails IRS could pursue to find out if there is income coming in," Mr. Levy said.
One Republican lawmaker cautioned Monday that the IRS plan could snare taxpayers who have coped with job losses by borrowing or using savings or retirement accounts to make their house payments.
"We shouldn't presume that these struggling families are tax cheats just because they continue to make their mortgage payments despite losing their income," said Rep. Charles Boustany (R., La.), the ranking minority member on the House Oversight Subcommittee.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
If you pay your mortgage you are a assumed to be a cheat. The ACORN-Obama voter types get endless bailouts, handouts and freebies, pay no taxes and have their hands out for more.
At this point, one might say something negative about the blood-sucking IRS; but then again, one might be audited...
Just ONE more reason to abolish the IRS and the income tax.
IOW, anyone who is retired and living off their pensions and investments. Another FU from Obama's Most Open and Honest Administration in History.
TRAITORS ALL OF THEM!
The enemy within.
I think it is probably more like: If you pay $50,000 in mortgage interest, but only report income of $40,000, you are suspected of being a tax cheat (unless you are a democrat on the ways and means committee).
Don't most peopls have their mortgage paid off when they are retired and living off their pensions and investments?
Economic Terrorists.
I know that when some states did this they uncovered a number of tax cheats, some of them owing a considerable amount of back taxes.
So then you should default on your mortgage. The government will have pity on you and pay your mortgage, and won’t audit you.
If you are so foolish as to work hard and pay your bills like a RESPONSIBLE person, the government will put on the glove, apply a lubricant, and inspect you where you lose all your dignity.
Do I get the impression that the government hates responsible, hard-working, thrifty people?
Ping.
“Paying mortgage will increase chances of audit..”
####
Based on the demographic breakdown of just WHO is more likely to default on their mortgages, this is blatant racial profiling by the zero administration.
Anyone surprised?
Of course the people who are just fine with the Obama IRS poring over mortgage information are the same people whose panties were in a knot over the Bush NSA intercepting enemy communications.
I have an acquaintence who makes a good six figures and hasn’t filed a return in almost two decades. Interestingly, he pays all state business taxes.
He also rents his home. Hmmmm...
If this same story was posted, except it was Russia or China, or even France, and the IRS was not called the “IRS”, I suspect we would be glad that we didn’t live in such a totalitarian hell hole.
But...we do.
One of the reasons I am moving to Kentucky is that the IRS schedules and percentages are across the board equal. That is, a person making $150k in New York city is taxed at basically the same rate as a person making $150k in rural Kentucky - except one is considered, locally, rich, while the other cannot afford an apartment.
The whole thing is a game. Like Monopoly. You play by the rules and can come up on top. But occasionally you land on Baltic Ave and the owner has a couple of houses on it.
Way beyond time to take indivuals off the federal tax role.
Sales tax or simply have the States pay a tax to cover Constitutionally authorized expenses.
>>Don’t most peopls have their mortgage paid off when they are retired and living off their pensions and investments?<<
No.
I know a lot of them. Almost all of them are still making payments, sometimes on purpose. Why drain your savings to buy a house when you can make payments on a nicer place and hope your money outlasts you?
yes
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