Warning - IRS E-mail Scams

WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service is warning taxpayers to be on the lookout for a new e-mail scam that uses the Treasury Department's Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) as a hook to lure individuals into disclosing their personal information.

The system, which is used by more than six million taxpayers, allows businesses and individuals to pay all their federal taxes online or by phone.

The new e-mail scam, fraught with grammatical errors and typos, looks like a page from IRS.gov and claims to be from the "IRS Antifraud Comission" (sic), a fictitious group. The e-mail claims someone has enrolled the taxpayer's credit card in EFTPS and has tried to pay taxes with it. The e-mail also says there have been fraud attempts involving the taxpayer's bank account. The e-mail claims money was lost and "remaining founds" (sic) are blocked. Recipients are asked to click on a link that will help them recover their funds, but the subsequent site asks for personal information that the thieves could use to steal the taxpayer’s identity.

"The IRS does not send out unsolicited e-mails asking for personal information," said IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson. "Don’t be taken in by these criminals.

"Additionally, the IRS never asks people for the PIN numbers, passwords or similar secret access information for their credit card, bank or other financial accounts.

The IRS has seen a recent increase in these scams. Since November, 104 different scams have been identified, with 22 of those coming in June, the most since 40 were identified in March during the height of the filing season.

Bob Comments

If you receive any of these types of e-mails from what appear to be a phishing expedition that asks for secure and private data report it immediately to the IRS or the company being represented by signing on to their web site by typing in the link yourself. In the world of HTML the link you see and the true link can be substantially different.

Gift Tax Questions

Are Gifts Tax Deductible?

Gifts may only be deducted if the recipient is a public charity, church or other organization authorized by the Internal Revenue Service to receive tax-deductible contributions.
Contributions to individuals, or to organizations that do not meet this criteria, are not deductible. Neither are contributions to political candidates or organizations.
Gifts to individuals may be subject to Gift Taxes (having nothing to do with Income Taxes). Generally, any gifts in excess of $13,000 per individual in a calendar year could be subject to Gift Taxes.

What Is A Gift Tax?

A Gift Tax return is required (having nothing to do with income tax) if you give a "taxable" gift, that is, a gift subject to gift tax reporting. Generally, any gifts in excess of $13,000 per person in a calendar year would be considered taxable gifts. A married couple may elect to split a gift, on Form 709 or 709-EZ, which allows them to give a combined total of $26,000 in one year to an individual without any part of it becoming taxable.

The term "taxable gift" is also a bit misleading, since, in most cases, you do NOT owe a tax with the gift tax return. You are allowed one lifetime unified credit against estate and gift taxes, which allows you to pass property worth $1,000,000 with a unified credit of $345,800 to heirs or others without incurring an actual tax. Each "taxable" gift you give during your lifetime reduces that allowance, dollar for dollar. When the entire $1,000,000 with a unified credit of $345,800 is used up, during your lifetime or when passing property to your heirs when you die, a gift tax or an estate tax, depending on the situation, is due on the excess.