What the IRS Doesn't Want You to Know: A CPA Reveals the Tricks of the Trade

Why Every Taxpayer Must Read This Book Welcome to the year 2000. The World Wide Web. Cell phones. E-mail. Eight point four gigabyte hard drives. Genetic engineering. Cloning. Viagra. Capabilities unheard of even one year ago abound. There's a new IRS commissioner, and a fresh, spiffy vision for reorganizing the IRS has been set in motion. But when it comes to paying taxes and dealing with the IRS, what really has changed thus far? Each year hundreds of reputable books are written about taxes, audits, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). No-nonsense, definitive, and powerful, the titles practically scream out ways that we can deal with the IRS: Fight, Win, Battle, Negotiate. Words such as The Only or The Best followed by Audit, Tax Forms, Small Business, or Corporate Tax Guide Book You'll Ever Need appear more than enough to guarantee results. Worried about the IRS, or in doubt about your personal tax situation? The confidence and warm cozy feelings titles such as these bring give a clear and unmistakable message to the taxpaying public: "Buy me," these books say, "and all of your tax problems will be resolved." So each year thousands buy these books, or select them off library shelves, hoping to discover the secret to keeping their tax payments low and their returns away from the scrutiny of the IRS. Unfortunately, the information taxpayers really need to satisfy these goals rarely, if ever, surfaces. No matter how much information taxpayers read, hear, or research on the subject, they still remain easy targets for the IRS. In the IRS ballpark, despite living in a megatechnology environment, and with periodic promises about a more consumer-oriented IRS, some things have changed, but very little. Isn't anyone aware of the self-generating scam that keeps taxpayers in semidarkness and the IRS operating the way it always has? There is a very specific group of people who are aware. They just aren't talking. The time has come to deal with some clear-cut, shocking truths about what's behind the unsettling phenomenon that perpetually keeps blinders on the taxpaying public. This requires exploring the overall phenomenon, and then examining why those in the know have remained silent. First the scam. Let's face facts: the IRS has a reputation for being all-knowing, all-powerful, and ruthless (many would say vicious). It is seen to have extensive manpower and technological resources, and the law is on its side. Without actually knowing what the IRS is and how the organization really works-or, perhaps more important, how it doesn't work-the public remains in the no-holds-barred grip of the IRS's reputation as the Big Bad Wolf. Millions of taxpayers live with the fear that one day an IRS agent will single out an item from their tax return, decide an audit is in order, and come after them. Fingering alleged cheaters and exacting retribution is, after all, the acknowledgment IRS agents crave. In fact, the IRS is often referred to as an agency out of control-and with good reason. Once it selects its culprits, it chooses the punishment and proceeds to administer it with very little containment from any other governmental or nongovernmental agencies. So it's really not surprising that most taxpayers envision the IRS as harassing and abusive, using its power in an uncaring, even brutal way to possibly destroy their careers and families. Taxpayers are consistently so fearful of dealing with the IRS that they rank it as an event as traumatic as divorce or having their house burn down. This paranoia shows how enormously successful the IRS has been in creating its all-powerful-and-untouchable image. By sustaining these fears, the IRS maintains a status quo that actually prevents taxpayers from * Questioning how much of the IRS's reputation is actually true. *&Kaplan, Martin S. is the author of 'What the IRS Doesn't Want You to Know: A CPA Reveals the Tricks of the Trade' with ISBN 9780679783589 and ISBN 067978358X.