For the taxpayers out there who feel they can outsmart their state auditors, beware? According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, tax agents in Nebraska, Minnesota, and California (probably are more states that will jump on the bandwagon) are taking their enforcement tactics to the internet. Taxing authorities in these states are beginning to use social networking sites to find and locate tax cheats who have moved out of their state by finding information about them on sites like MySpace and FaceBook. The auditors still have to follow the rules of the social networking site (such as they cannot befriend a person on Facebook using false information), but the use of tracking tax cheats via social media and Google is beginning to catch on. More states are considering adding social media tracking to their arsenal for locating tax cheats and the IRS declined to comment on if they were using social media (wink, wink). Be sure to check out the article and see how some people got caught.
Moral to the story is to seek out a professional tax preparer and pay what you owe, for the tax man is coming to get you and he has a new way to track you now.
B. N. S.
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