Thursday, August 27, 2009
Tax Man Uses MySpace to Nab Deadbeats
In today's Wall Street Journal, Is "Friending" in Your Future? Better Pay Your Taxes First, by Laura Saunders:
(Hat Tip: Ann Murphy.)Tax deadbeats are finding someone actually reads their MySpace and Facebook postings: the taxman.
State revenue agents have begun nabbing scofflaws by mining information posted on social-networking Web sites, from relocation announcements to professional profiles to financial boasts. ...
An IRS spokesman declined to say whether its agents use social-networking sites to pursue delinquent taxes or assist audits.
There are limits to what state agents can do on the Web. In Nebraska, agents are only allowed to use information that is publicly available online. So, MySpace ... tends to work best because its users often post more public information than do those of sites like Facebo. ... The default settings for adults on MySpace create a public profile, while the default settings on Facebook create a profile only viewable by an approved list of friends. "Agents are not allowed to 'friend' someone using false information" ...
https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2009/08/the-tax-man.html
Comments
This is disgusting, but then again tax collectors are lower than a rattlesnake belly in a wagon wheel track.
When a "collector" or private investigator did this in the not too distant past, it may not have been illegal, but was frowned upon even by colleagues and known as LYING."
Now, in order to assuage the feelings of guilt I am sure most of these people have (I sure as hell did as a PI) and its called "pretexting," another little Bush-ism designed to cover and obfuscate the truth. Hell, they even give seminars on it now!
If you have any friends or relatives using this non-word for their jobs, ask them how they feel about it.
Collections is a filthy, rotten, evil business and those that participate in it willingly are responsible for destroying lives, there is no way around it and they need to be reminded of this on a daily basis. I tore up my PI license because of it back in the '90's and never looked back. I could not believe how much better I felt about myself and how I viewed the world even though I was dead-broke and being pursued by my former "colleagues" as a result. I am an investigative journalist now, and put what I have learned about this nasty business to good use by exposing it whenever possible, dragging them out into the sunlight kicking and screaming like the bloodsuckers that they are.
This is the only way to stop it now, as our elected representatives are in it up to their necks.
Robert S. Finnegan
Editor
Southeastasia Independent Media
rsfinnegan@gmail.com
www.southeastasiaindependentmedia.com
Jakarta, Indonesia
Posted by: Robert S. Finnegan | Aug 28, 2009 3:41:46 AM
Is this how Charlie Rangel found out- he owed taxes on 1.7 million in assets he forgot to claim on his returns?
Posted by: RF Roch | Aug 29, 2009 8:06:55 AM