Internal Revenue Service

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IRS Systems Failure Could Affect Refunds

Agency not accepting e-returns

(Newser) - The Internal Revenue Service is scrambling to fix a major systems outage that could affect refunds, though it believes 90% of taxpayers will still get their refunds within 21 days of filing. Some of the agency's tax processing systems went down on Wednesday and it has temporary stopped accepting...

April 15 Comes on April 18 This Year

Little-known holiday gets taxpayers a grace period

(Newser) - Taxpayers nationwide will get a few days' grace this year to file their returns thanks to a little-known holiday in the nation's capital. And the head of the IRS promises 1,000 more customer services representatives will be available to ease waiting times on information lines. IRS Commissioner John...

Massive IRS Scam Nearly Claims Ivy League Reporter

Lisa Bennett has written about scams before, but almost fell for this one

(Newser) - When Ivy League-educated journalist Lisa Bennett, who has covered scams among other money-related topics, got a call from the IRS earlier this year, she was told she owed $5,347 in back taxes and that the police were coming to get her. Her first reaction was relatively logical—"That’...

Ex-IRS Official Won't Be Charged in Tea Party Scandal

Justice Dept. declines to charge Lois Lerner

(Newser) - The Justice Department is declining to bring charges against Lois Lerner, the former IRS official at the center of a political controversy over the processing of applications for tax-exempt status. Federal prosecutors announced their decision Friday in a letter to members of Congress. A firestorm erupted more than two years...

IRS Now Recognizing All Same-Sex Marriages

Treasury Dept. agrees: 'husband,' 'wife' apply to gay couples too

(Newser) - The IRS is making it official: The tax agency says it will now recognize same-sex marriages regardless of where they were performed. The IRS and the Treasury Department also said they will interpret the terms "husband" and "wife" to apply to same-sex spouses as well as opposite-sex spouses....

IRS: We No Longer Accept Checks Over $99,999,999

Super-rich will just have to pay electronically

(Newser) - Owe the tax man $100 million or more? Your check is no good at the IRS. Starting next year, the IRS says it will reject all checks for more than $99,999,999. That's because check-processing equipment at the nation's Federal Reserve banks can't handle checks that...

IRS: Melissa Gilbert Owes Us $360K

But no worries, her hubby says it's no big deal

(Newser) - The latest celebrity in trouble with the IRS : Melissa Gilbert. The agency says the former Little House on the Prairie star owes $360,551 in federal income taxes. "Like so many people across the nation, the recession hit me hard," the 51-year-old actress tells the Detroit News . "...

New IRS Scandal Wrinkle Has Echoes of Watergate
New IRS Scandal Wrinkle
Has Echoes of Watergate
OPINION
Jun 17, 2014 1:03 PM CDT

New IRS Scandal Wrinkle Has Echoes of Watergate

Peggy Noonan: How convenient that a computer crash wiped out pertinent emails

(Newser) - If you missed the latest development in Congress' investigation of the IRS, it has the potential to be a doozy, notes Politico . The tax agency informed investigators on Friday that it had lost two years' worth of emails to and from Lois Lerner , the former head of the division accused...

IRS Handed Out $1M in Bonuses— to Workers Who Owed Back Taxes

And almost double that amount to other workers with disciplinary problems

(Newser) - The Internal Revenue Service has paid more than $2.8 million in bonuses to employees with recent disciplinary problems, including $1 million to workers who owed back taxes, a government investigator said yesterday. More than 2,800 workers got bonuses despite facing a disciplinary action in the previous year, including...

Beware Massive IRS Phone Scam

Fake agents demand immediate payment

(Newser) - If an Internal Revenue Service agent calls you up threatening dire consequences if unpaid taxes aren't settled immediately, don't pay up—that's not an IRS agent on the other end. Tax officials say that in the "largest scam of its kind that we have ever seen,...

Charges in IRS Targeting Scandal? Not Likely

FBI doesn't see evidence of criminal wrongdoing, sources say

(Newser) - Don't expect any criminal charges related to last year's IRS scandal . Law enforcement officials tell the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times that the FBI doesn't plan to file any charges over the increased scrutiny experienced by various political groups that applied for tax-exempt status....

As Feds Sing Praises, Bitcoin Hits Record High

Senators told IRS plans to regulate virtual currency

(Newser) - Bitcoin had a good day yesterday—as did people holding the virtual currency. On some exchanges, it hit record prices of $800 or more after a Senate hearing that saw federal officials praise some of the benefits of digital money, the Wall Street Journal reports. The first-ever congressional hearing on...

Shutdown Fallout: Delayed Tax Refunds

IRS to start processing returns later

(Newser) - Internal Revenue Service workers are back from furlough with news that might annoy on-the-ball taxpayers: The agency says the government shutdown will delay the date when it begins processing tax returns by as much as two weeks, meaning refunds won't arrive as promptly as usual for millions of early...

IRS Posted 100K Social Security Numbers Online: Watchdog

They belonged to tax-exempt political groups' donors

(Newser) - As if the IRS didn't have enough on its plate . Now, the agency has accidentally posted thousands of Social Security numbers—perhaps 100,000, according to one observer—on a federal website. The IRS confirmed the story, initially spotted by Public.Resource.Org . The IDs were posted on a...

Latest IRS Sin: $50M Spent on Conferences in 3 Years

'Inappropriate' outlay included line-dancing lessons

(Newser) - Sympathy might be in short supply for the IRS, which has been hit by an audit at a very inconvenient time. A government watchdog's look at the scandal-hit agency's books found that it spent around $50 million on more than 200 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012,...

IRS' New Headache: Dance Video

House Republicans salivate over new evidence of abuse

(Newser) - Another day, another cringe-inducing instance of the IRS looking tone deaf: The latest embarrassment comes via the House Ways and Means Committee, which Friday released a video of IRS employees line-dancing to the "Cupid Shuffle"—on the taxpayer dime. The video is apparently what passed for entertainment at...

IRS&#39;s Lerner Placed on Leave
 IRS' Lerner Placed on Leave 
May 23, 2013 5:00 PM CDT

IRS' Lerner Placed on Leave

Move comes after her non-testimony on Capitol Hill

(Newser) - The IRS official at the center of the recent scandal has been placed on administrative leave, reports the National Review . Lois Lerner had been in charge of the agency's tax-exempt unit, which singled out conservative groups for added scrutiny. Her immediate boss already has been forced into early retirement...

IRS Honcho Defiant in 9-Minute House Appearance

Lois Lerner says she hasn't done anything wrong, then pleads the 5th

(Newser) - The IRS official at the center of the storm over the agency's targeting of conservative groups told Congress today that she had done nothing wrong in the episode, and then invoked her constitutional right to refuse to answer lawmakers' questions, as expected . In one of the most electric moments...

Holder: I Wasn&#39;t Part of AP Case
 Holder Orders IRS Investigation 
May 14, 2013 1:42 PM CDT

Holder Orders IRS Investigation

He also said he had no involvement in the AP phone records scandal

(Newser) - Eric Holder today said he has launched a criminal investigation into the IRS scandal , and he also disavowed involvement in the AP snooping scandal . On the latter, the attorney general said he'd recused himself from the related leak investigation. In a press conference at the Justice Department today, Holder...

IRS Also Leaked Info About Conservative Groups

Targeting scandal widens

(Newser) - More trouble for the IRS: The same office that singled out conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status also leaked confidential information about conservative groups last year, ProPublica reports. How does ProPublica know? Well, because the nine pending applications were leaked to ProPublica in the first place. The investigative site had...

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