Internal Revenue Service

IRS Warns of Charity Scams in Wake of Boston and West, Texas

Apparently because there are just too many a-holes in the world, the IRS has issued a warning about charity scams that have popped up in the wake of the Boston and West, Texas tragedies. "It's sad but true," the IRS tells us. "Following major disasters and tragedies, scam artists impersonate charit ... More >>

Five Do's & Don'ts For Tax Day 2013, Including Watching Lots Of Sitcoms

Another April, another (goddamn) Tax Day. The annual rite of paying taxes has been buffed up to a science by the media -- on no other day will you hear the team "Uncle Sam" used so often -- and all the people who have somehow forgotten this day was coming will be reminded ad nauseam. Still, ther ... More >>

Seven Things You Should Never, Ever, EVER Send Via E-Mail

Recently, the IRS has made a broad claim that communications via e-mail are not directly protected under privacy laws. This would seem to be counter to many of the discussions Congress has had over the past few years about tightening up those same privacy concerns. Whatever the outcome of these on ... More >>

Houston, Prepare For Tax-Return Identity Theft (Even Though It Looks Like We're Doing Okay)

The Internal Revenue Service announced this afternoon the results of a monthlong crackdown on identity theft, and it look like there's more than enough of the crime to spread around. Houston, though, isn't as bad as most cities. The city was one of 17 "high-risk places identified by the IRS" for a ... More >>

Laura Pendergest-Holt: Former Stanford Financial Head Gets Three Years In Prison

Laura Pendergest-Holt, 39, the former chief investment officer for the Ponzi-scheming Stanford Financial Group, got her prison sentence today: up to three years in a federal pen. She got her sentence, prosecutors say, for "obstructing a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation in ... More >>

David and Bridget Montgomery: Funneling Construction Profits To Church Doesn't Mean You Don't Pay Income Tax

A federal jury has convicted a husband-wife team of tax fraud in connection with a construction business they ran which funneled profits to their church. David and Bridget Montgomery argued that if the money went to the church, it shouldn't be taxed as income, but prosecutors for the Department of ... More >>

Robert Steve Mills: Pleaded Guilty to Money Laundering in Case Where a Fake Insurance Policy Was Issued & 20 People Died

Check out our earlier story when Christopher Purser pled guilty in the same case. A 57-year-old Florida man has been convicted of "conspiracy to launder money," for his involvement in a case in which a false insurance policy was issued for the tour boat Ethan Allen, the U.S. Attorney's office an ... More >>

5 Tips for Musicians to Avoid IRS Trouble

It's a fact of life that bears repeating: The IRS does not fuck around, no matter who you are. Legendary musician Chuck Berry received a reminder of this universal truth the hard way 33 years ago this month. Only three days after playing a gig on the White House lawn for President Jimmy Carter, the ... More >>

This Week in Deliciousness: Fancy-Ass Nobel-Type Prize-Winning Pizza and More

Welcome back to the weekend roundup here at Eating Our Words, where we're actually kind of looking forward to two straight days of festival food this weekend. It'll be a welcome vacation from reality and sanity. We started the week off right with a look at the many, many, many different varieties o ... More >>

Tax Day: The 5 Best Things About It

Tomorrow is deadline day for filing your federal income taxes. Normally, that's a terrible thing. No one except Warren Buffett is eager to pay taxes. And it's worse for us members of the hoi polloi, for while we're handing over a big chunk of our wages, we do it knowing some one-percenter member of ... More >>

Taqueria Arandas Owner Gets Year in Prison on Tax Charges

Jesus Huerta, the owner of two Taqueria Arandas restaurants in Houston, has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for filing false tax returns that underestimated income by $4.6 million over five years. Huerta was also ordered to pay $543,646 in restitution; he's already repaid $276 ... More >>

Houston Literary Magazine Tries To Convince the IRS It's Not Porn

Purveyors of filth​NANO Fiction, a bi-annual publication of "flash fiction, prose poems, and micro essays of 300 words or fewer," is holding a fund-raiser. Why? So it can prove to the IRS it isn't porn. Eric Todd, an associate editor, says NANO Fiction is trying to qualify as a non-profit, ... More >>

Yankee Fan Catches a $13,000 Tax Bill Off Derek Jeter's Bat

One of these guys is thrilled to pose with the other.​Growing up, the dream of many a young boy is to catch a significant souvenir baseball at a game. If you're a young lad who grew up watching the New York Yankees this past decade and a half, I would imagine that catching a ball, any ball, of ... More >>

Jimmy Mitlo: Incredibly Successful Machine Repairman Gets Two Years. Owes IRS $550,000

Repairmen just don't rock the cool hats anymore.​Jimmy Mitlo is one industrious guy, but he's going to have a lot of time on his hands pretty soon. He'll be in a federal prison, perhaps contemplating how he's going to come up with the $550,000 he needs to reimburse the IRS for unpaid taxes. ... More >>

Houston Beer Festival Finds Itself in a Sticky Situation

​This weekend is the Houston Beer Festival, an event from the same organizers as last year's Houston Wine Festival, and it's not without its share of controversy. Organizer Timothy Hudson came under fire earlier this week when it was noted by local Twitter bloodhound Kyle Nielsen that the bee ... More >>

Celebrity Tax Cheats: Five Pieces of Crap Produced to Pay the IRS

Tax time is looming, and even though you get a weekend reprieve this year -- the deadline is April 18, not the 15th, because of an obscure Washington, D.C. holiday -- you'd no doubt like to skip the whole thing altogether. Some famous people have taken that same route. Unfortunately for them, they ... More >>

I Wanna Be Your Dog (Or Cat): One For You, Nineteen For Me

Ah, April 14 -- the last day before taxes are due. If you listen closely, you can hear the frantic panic of folks who waited until the last minute to file. And this tax season was especially rough, what with the Obama administration's new mandate that even domestic animals have to pay taxes. Does th ... More >>

Cut Your Tax Bill And Help An Arts Organization Via Last-Minute Donations

Support a local arts organization and knock a few bucks off your IRS bill while you still have time -- make a tax deductible donation today. Dozens of museums, theater and dance companies have online options to make donations or are happy to take your credit card number over the phone. Funds are use ... More >>

Marriage and...what else? Illegal Immigration...again!

Sikh Woman Who Wanted To Wear Ceremonial Dagger To Her IRS Job Suffers Setback

​A Sikh woman -- one of the members of the family that was harassed by Harris County Sheriff's deputies late last year -- had her claims that she should be able to wear a ceremonial dagger to her IRS job rejected by a federal judge.The Examiner website reports that U.S. District Judge Sim Lake tos ... More >>

Bocephus Wants to Bail (One of) You Out, America

Lost your job? 401(k) a distant memory? Still think a country boy can survive? Well, America, you're in luck: Hank Williams Jr. feels your pain, and he wants to help out. Today, in conjunction with his new single "Red, White and Pink-Slip Blues," Hank Jr. announced his "Bocephus Bailout Packa ... More >>

Down Payment Blues: Musicians With Tax Trouble

Finished that tax return yet? Not to worry: you've still got a few hours until midnight, and the post offices are open late. Over the years, these musicians have gotten in hot water with their countries' internal-revenue collectors as well... Bono Forever a proponent of all things charitable, ... More >>

For April 15: Five Movies About Taxes

April 15 each year brings with it the journalistic challenge of covering yet another "last-rush filers" story, or some clever way to say that it's the deadline for getting your return in. (We still wonder if anyone's ever been prosecuted because their return had an April 16 postmark.)The subject of ... More >>

4th Annual Readers Theatre

Web exclusive!

Looking For A Little Stimulus?

Bold New immigration Plan -- Give Yourself Up

Roger Clemens Could Return to the Astros? Really?

Duck Season. Rabbit Season. Tax Season.

TAX TIME!

SPECIAL DÍA DE LOS IMPUESTOS EDITION

Secret Crimes of the Characters from "Gilligan’s Island"

Kid Care, Carol Porter, Wayne Dolcefino, Weighing Marijuana and Stopping on Red

The Kid Care story fizzles to a finish

Infernal Bridegroom Productions shuts down amid financial questions; Galveston development

Sudden death for a local favorite

Parking Lot Plot

Jerry Payne, attorney and ex-strip club owner, vs. the IRS and the Houston Chronicle

The Long Shot

Ground Zero

Houston's been the No. 1 city in America in the obesity crisis. But hype doesn't mean help.

Songs of Sorrow

American Analog Set rocks lightly

Paying Their Way

Payback Time?

Dick DeGuerin beat the IRS. Now there's a bigger war over basic rights.

Tax Rebate Waste?

Lest tax payers forget about the rebate, U.S. Rep John Culberson drives the message home with $36,000 worth of mailings

Stale Mail at the Fed

Urine, tax returns, and credit card payments pile up at the federal building

No Contest

KPRC uses the IRS for this month's sweeps giveaway

Court Karma: What Goes Around Comes Around

Judge to O'Quinn, O'Quinn to rehab and Bishop to Dock

More Payne for the IRS

Prolonged agency abuses bring a Houston attorney $1.5 million

Letters

Attacking the Taxman

James Farmer and Cliff Williams do their best to irk the IRS

Letters

Tales From the IRS

Three stories of taxman terror

Alison Cook looks back at 1996: Year of the Rat

Archer's Way

Don't like the IRS? Neither does Bill Archer. And now the mild-mannered Houston congressman is pushing a radical plan to shut it down.

Musical Chairs

Clubs open, clubs close -- the only thing constant is change itself