Pay your taxes

[jimenright]

I've been reading a blog with posts by folks complaining about persecution by the IRS. In most cases you can tell that they tried to avoid paying what they were suppossed to in the first place.

Pay your taxes and follow the rules. If you make an honest mistake, the IRS will normally coperate with you. If you try to scam the US out of your tax, expect to be penalized.

Follow the rules folks and life will be easier.

[Gretel]

Who are you talking to?

[ChEAr$]

Who are you talking to?

Jim is just echoing our sentiments many times. Just yesterday on television, an add for
that J K Harris outfit had a supposed "client", face blacked out for privacy I suppose,
complaining: " .... and they took the last $40 out of my checking account."

Many of us get tired of people complaining about what "they" do or did when it's their own
fault.

okay, I'm done.

[jimenright]

everybody

I spoke to US taxpayers and those who should be.

[FEDUKE404]

TV ads are a sham

...Just yesterday on television, an add for that J K Harris outfit had a supposed "client", face blacked out for privacy I suppose, complaining: " .... and they took the last $40 out of my checking account."

Many of us get tired of people complaining about what "they" do or did when it's their own fault.

My sentiments, exactly!

I've seen the same ad with the crying woman (who is an actor) and the "helpful" curmudgeonly Harris folks there to solve her troubles. My general reaction is to mutter something under my breath at such ads.

Too many folks DO seem to think they can simply ignore the laws, do whatever they want, and someone will eventually bail them out.

As an aside, I'm surprised the Harris folks and their ilk are not treading on thin ice anyway with such advertisements. They carefully hide in the small print that such services are available only for tax debts >$10k and of course don't mention what other surprises might await the non-taxpayer down the line.

Folks see the ads (especially at this time of year!) and probably think those professionals can help them in the tax dispute over that $2,000 bag of used clothing they gave to GoodWill!

FE

[WhiteOleander]

I think that most of the people watching these ads don't know how to interpret them. Many of the ads say:
"I owed $XXXXX.XX and the 'Wizards' at {Fix My Problem}, got my debt down to $X.XX."

What is not being said is how they reduced the balance due. I think in most cases it's as simple as filing a 1040X with the proper info. Such as reporting the basis on gross stock sales. Or explaining that a distribution from an IRA was actually a rollover, not a taxable event.

The general public doesn't realize that so many problems can be fixed with one or two letters and maybe a 1040X. There's no need to spend thousands of dollars to do it.

That's my opinion.