Product Description
Reliable source on tax procedure and tax fraud helps bridge the gap between understanding "substantive" code provisions and preparing to represent a taxpayer in an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) dispute. Coverage includes IRS and treasury rulemaking; confidentiality and disclosure; audits and administrative appeals; statute of limitations; litigation considerations; penalties and collection process; liability; investigation; and tax crimes. ... Read more

Product Description
The work is designed as a single, comprehensive coursebook covering civil, criminal, and collection aspects of tax practice and procedure. This casebook is not intended solely for those who will spend their professional lives exclusively as "tax lawyers." It is equally adaptable to a course that seeks to provide students with a general overview of the administrative and judicial aspects of tax practice. The emphasis throughout the book is on providing a practical introduction to tax procedures and tax fraud.
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Customer Reviews (1)

Good, though doesn't do what it says on the tin
I must say that this book takes a thorough approach to its subject matter, though perhaps rather more honest than I was hoping.Anyone looking for steers on how to avoid the heat from the IRS, better look elsewhere. ... Read more

Product Description
In The Great American Tax Dodge, a book that should infuriate and galvanize citizens everywhere, the best-selling authors of America: What Went Wrong? expose the millions of Americans who are dodging their income taxes at every honest taxpayer's expense. With the clarity, insight, and readability that earned them two Pulitzer Prizes, Donald Barlett and James Steele explain how Americans are cheating as never before, and why most are getting away with it.The authors relate the stories of a Manhattan couple who spent $1 million a month to maintain their lifestyle yet never paid income tax, a California couple who provided sport utility vehicles for their children at taxpayers' expense, an entrepreneur in Costa Rica who shows Americans how to hide their money in clandestine accounts offshore, and computer technicians at America's largest corporations who live tax-free.Barlett and Steele describe how the Internet has democratized tax cheating, as proliferating Web sites and their often mysterious operators offer every service imaginable to escape taxes. They discuss the double standard the IRS employs in tax audits--one for the rich and well-connected and another for everyone else--and how the Justice Department tries to jail powerless citizens accused of tax law violations while allowing the wealthy and influential to go free. This book also documents how Congress is deliberately undermining the income tax in order to replace it with a system that will provide the largest windfall ever for the richest Americans--and increase the burden on everyone else. And it spells out how executives like Kenneth L. Lay bankrolled campaigns to institute such a tax system, based on accounting principles eerily similar to those employed at Lay's Enron Corporation. Finally, the authors consider our chances for reestablishing what was once the fairest tax system in the world.Amazon.com Review
It's often said there's nothing certain in life except deathand taxes. According to two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigativejournalists Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, however, the latterpart of that adage is now decidedly in dispute. The Great AmericanTax Dodge, the pair's latest examination of U.S. systems goneawry, spells out exactly how massive tax fraud is currently costingthe nation enough to provide health care for its 44 million uninsuredcitizens--and precisely why the problem will continue to grow atvirtually all economic levels unless remedial measures are immediatelyemployed. In their fully detailed but always readable style, Barlettand Steele authoritatively discuss multimillionaires who never filetax returns, Internet sites that can link anyone to shady tax havens,the use of "phantom children" and "invisible employees" toillegitimately shelter income, and evasive techniques like offshoreaccounts and holding companies that illegally keep money from reachingthe government agencies to which it is owed. But the problem cannotexclusively be blamed on those individuals who choose to shirk theircivic responsibility, the authors note. Congress, which regularlylooks the other way, and the IRS itself, which consistently fails toenforce its own rules, also share much of the blame. Packed withspecific examples and unsettling particulars, the book will frustrateeveryone who dutifully files a tax return each April and expects theirfellow Americans to do the same. Fortunately, it also includes asimple yet plausible proposal for turning the situationaround. --Howard Rothman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

The Essence of the Argument is There...
While there are some short-comings with this book, the overall general idea rings true, and their evidence supports the claim.The book does not aim to be a fix-all for the numerous troubles that ail american democracy.Rather, it simply aims to expose yet another example of class preference in American society.

Like the legal system, the tax code works more to one's advantage the more money one has.That is the simple premise of the book - not government gridlock, not class jealousy, and certainly not socialism.The authors argue from the simple point of showing how wealthy individuals take great advantage of our tax code.And while it does suggest a certain conclusion, I would argue that it is common sense and logic that they use to arrive at the fact that this is but one more way the wealthy absolve themselves of any responsibility in society.

In the end, it is an informative read, but should not be taken by itself.It should be read in conjunction with other works on the tax code, gov't spending, and other problems that plague American society and allow the wealthy to keep distancing themselves, and avoid responsibility.

Informative but unhelpful
The major portion of the book confirms our suspicions of the massive tax avoidance and evasion that is extant in the U.S. today. I found much of the material to be revealing of the methodology used by rich and poor to escape the responsibility of paying ones dues.
The authors lost me in their attack on VAT ( National Sales Tax ) which has worked successfully in tne United Kingdom and in Canada. These countries are way ahead of us in Social Services. Any tax plan will have its defects, but this is one way to avoid the off shore plans, and the refusal to even submit the 1040 form.
The final chapter devoted to the authors' solution to the problem is a joke. If you take one suggestion after another it is clear that our economy will not tolerate their badly constructed cure. I think that they were just in a hurry to close out the book and had really ill considered, ( or no ), advice from seasoned economists. These two chapters left me with a feeling of let down and disappointment. I had hoped to find some well constructed answers to a pernicious problem. But they offered none.

Terrific Book
Barlett and Steel won two Pulitzer prices for journalism so you know their work is high quality. This book will offend some readers, especially the devious rich and the gray-area almost-crooks. But I hope it will anger the hard working stiffs in the middle class who still believe paying taxes is the price of having a good society. The authors make a convincing case that Congress does not care to make the system just or fair and that America is in danger of moving toward the Banana Republic and some-European-countries model where if you pay your taxes honestly you are considered a fool.How bad it has gotten can be seen in the case of our famous former president, who managed to leave his presidency in such a sleazy way. The book came out last fall and maybe Bubba read the pages on Marc Rich, who could be described as a crook and an enemy of America. But that didn't stop our president from granting him a pardon. Could a $450,000 donation to the Clinton library and some $150,000 donated to Hilary's senate campaign have anything to do with that? Of course not. I give this book five stars because it is well researched and well written, fascinating from beginning to end. See what a boon the Internet has become for tax cheats. See how venerable Swiss banks are only too happy to help you hide your undeclared income. See how Congress crippled the IRS. We now have the best government and representatives money can buy and nobody cares.Almost nobody. A man like Sen. McCain is a miracle, because he is one of the solutions. Read this book. It's terrific.

As long as I don't get caught, it's okay.
Before I read the book, I had the (mistaken) belief that all income tax evaders had an equal chance of an IRS Audit.I now see that the IRS is set-up to audit citizens that can't afford lawyers--the book has good evidence for that, the kind you can find for yourself.

Unfortunately, the book isn't totally solid.It rightly points out that the current tax system is unfair for the un-wealthy, and I think the authors provide fairly good evidence that this unfairness is largely due to a congress that has created a behemoth tax code while simultaneously stripping the IRS of its ability to enforce it.Unfortunately, though, there were times that some claims went un-referenced (e.g., past tax code), which left me wondering about what was "factual."

The book is biased towards blaming the wealthy for lobbying congress while dumping billions into tax shelters (this bias, nonetheless, seems well supported), but the book isn't about wealth bashing--it is about the notion that in our country, to some extent, we are all our neighbor's helper, and to cheat taxes is morally incomprehensible and consequential.They point to the ills of society fostering an environment for cheaters of all kinds...from tax evaders to cheating college freshman, as evidence for the cheater's mentality.In this regard, the book has a pessimistic view of a human nature that always reduces itself to the "lowest common denominator" (i.e., if the wealthy cheat on taxes, why shouldn't I?).The authors pose good arguments against flat taxes and sales taxes, while supporting a progressive tax such as our current tax structure.They argue that the current tax code is too complicated and should be simplified.This complication is largely do to the history of special interest groups successfully lobbying for tax loopholes.Overall, I know more about taxes (and tax evasion) than I had before the book.

Read this before you vote!
Just read the last two chapters, "How Congress plans to increase your Taxes" and the final chapter on their solution.These authors show how Congress is crippling the enforcement of tax cheats by the rich, even granting them loopholes so they pay even less than they should.The flat tax and national sales tax are shown to be the shams they are, the rich will get very rich and the poor and middle class will take the burden of the lost taxes from the rich.Don't believe me, read the book.Why did Warren Buffett endorse Gore saying he (Buffett) pays less taxes than his secretary?Because this is all true, Congress has always made the tax laws favor the rich, hiding it in complex regulations that only the rich can afford the lawyers and accountants to figure out.They pay less taxes and now the Republicans want to make the income tax so difficult that the rest of the country can be sold a bill of goods that repealing the income tax and putting in a flat tax will help the middle class instead of the truth that it will devastate the middle class.Buy the book, get the book from the library, but read the book before you vote! ... Read more

Product Description
Reliable source on tax procedure and tax fraud helps bridge the gap between understanding "substantive" code provisions and preparing to represent a taxpayer in an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) dispute. Coverage includes IRS and treasury rulemaking; confidentiality and disclosure; audits and administrative appeals; statute of limitations; litigation considerations; penalties and collection process; liability; investigation; and tax crimes. ... Read more

Product Description
A cumulative supplement to Volume 2 of Tax Fraud and Evasion. Loose-leaf pages with holes drilled for five-ring binder. Provides new material since publication of the main volume, including updates to Chapters 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15. Several hundred pages. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Social Research, published by New School for Social Research on December 22, 2008. The length of the article is 10763 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: What do we know about tax fraud? An overview of recent developments.
Author: Benno Torgler
Publication: Social Research (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 22, 2008
Publisher: New School for Social Research
Volume: 75Issue: 4Page: 1239(32)

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), published by The Register Guard on February 27, 2010. The length of the article is 801 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Tax preparer faces fraud indictment.(Business)(The Lowell woman is accused of falsifying her clients' deductions, and could face prison if she is convicted)
Author: Unavailable
Publication: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) (Newspaper)
Date: February 27, 2010
Publisher: The Register Guard
Page: B11

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Product Description
This digital document is an article from The Tax Adviser, published by American Institute of CPA's on December 1, 2002. The length of the article is 1897 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Tax fraud and tax protesters.
Author: William P. Brown
Publication: The Tax Adviser (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2002
Publisher: American Institute of CPA's
Volume: 33Issue: 12Page: 790(3)

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This digital document is an article from Pediatric News, published by International Medical News Group on December 1, 2001. The length of the article is 595 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Recruiting packages can raise tax, fraud, and antitrust concerns. (Physician Recruiting Efforts).
Author: Joyce Frieden
Publication: Pediatric News (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 2001
Publisher: International Medical News Group
Volume: 35Issue: 12Page: 46(1)

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This digital document is an article from America's Insider, published by Darien Gap LLC on February 1, 2001. The length of the article is 558 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Crackdown on tax fraud in Brazil reveals just how big the problem was.(Brief Article)
Publication: America's Insider (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2001
Publisher: Darien Gap LLC
Volume: 1Issue: 16Page: 4

Article Type: Brief Article

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