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New research says we may see more tax cheats this year and Washington D.C. politicians may be to blame.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Health and Human Services nominee Tom Daschle, Utah Sen. Bob Bennett. At one point, all of these men owed back taxes. These issues have come to light recently as President Obama puts together his cabinet.
But will these tax mistakes inspire others to cheat? Some tax preparers say, "Nah."
Bennett's Tax Service owner Vern Bennett said, "If someone's going to cheat, they're going to do it, you know. That's in their nature."
But some researchers disagree. USA Today quoted researchers that say, "Taxpayers are less likely to comply with the law if they believe other taxpayers are cheating." Vern Bennett says he doesn't notice people are cheating more often, but there are many more things taxpayers get tripped up on.
"There are a lot of things you just learn over the years of preparing taxes; things to look for, deductions. Those deductions change from year to year," he said.
Bennett says the IRS has more auditors to go after people of all economic classes.
Fitzgerald and Company Senior Tax Advisor Corey Meurer said, "The audits of today are a lot tougher than the audits of, say, five years ago or even two or three years ago because they're just scrutinizing every number. They want to see every W2, every 1099."
Meurer says the IRS backed off on its audits a few years back after getting a bad rap for being too aggressive. But you can kiss the kinder, gentler IRS goodbye.
"As the economy gets worse, and as there are shortfalls and budget problems, they're being mandated to be tougher," said Meurer.
He says, in a way, it's almost like the IRS expects every taxpayer to be a bookkeeper, which he doubts is realistic.
"I think the way that the laws are being written, especially in the last few years with all these stimulus packages and recovery acts, it's not being clearly stated to the taxpayer what these credits really are," he explained.
Meurer says he does believe some people may push the limits of what they can get away with if they see politicians doing the same. However, he says people should go the other directions, being more careful on what they try to deduct.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
