IRS Names Four New Frivolous Claims to Avoid

[kcjenkins]

The four new frivolous claims pertain to the following:

*Misinterpretation of the 9th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution regarding objections to military spending.

*Erroneous claims that taxes are owed only by persons with a fiduciary relationship to the United States or the IRS.

*A nonexistent “Mariner’s Tax Deduction” (or the like) related to invalid deductions for meals.

*Certain instances of misuse or excessive use of the section 6421 fuels credit.

[JohnH]

I saw one of these a couple of years back. An employee of a client was being audited and he asked me to look over the return. For the year in question he had been working as a taxicab driver, and the tax preparer had claimed a couple of thousand dollars for the fuel tax credit. Of course, the tax preparer was long gone by this time.

I asked if he had spent his time driving the cab acrosss parks, woods, and ballfields. When he said he hadn't, I gave his return back to him & just told him he has big problems. I notice that he is still having money garnished from his paychecks each month.

[kcjenkins]

Yep, that is a common scam some bogus preparers use. But I always wonder why the client falls for it. But then, many of them do not really read their returns, just look at 'how much am I getting back?'.

That Mariner thing has come up almost every year, on here and on the old board, and someone always defends it, and sends a link to a website, etc. I'm glad to see it finally officially listed as the scam it is.