Tax dodgers beware: IRS could be watching your social media

[CaseyJones]

http://www.cnet.com/news/tax-dodgers-beware-irs-could-be-watching-your-social-media/

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have all become places where people post intimate details about their lives: vacation photos, work successes, buying a new house, car, or other cool stuff.

However, this information is also up for grabs by the Internal Revenue Service.

The taxman is reportedly using data from social media on people who file fishy-seeming taxes or don't file at all, according to Marketplace. The IRS loses roughly $300 billion per year to tax evasion; and in times of budget cuts, with a smaller staff, the agency has allegedly turned to both data mining and data crunching.

In its quest to find and audit tax dodgers, the IRS is said to use online activity trackers to sift through the mass amounts of data available on the Internet, according to Marketplace. This data is then added to the information the agency already has on people, such as Social Security numbers, health records, banking statements, and property.

 

[phill4paul]

$300 billion. People just aren't trying.

 

[Voluntarist]

xxxxx

 

[fr33]

haha on April 15 my wife posted on facebook: "FU IRS!"

and we're getting a refund this year.

 

[Occam's Banana]

The IRS loses roughly $300 billion per year to tax evasion

No, the IRS gains roughly $300 billion less per year than it otherwise would due to tax evasion.

The only ones who "lose" money are the people to whom that money belonged in the first place.

 

[jtap]

No, the IRS gains roughly $300 billion less per year than it otherwise would due to tax evasion.

The only ones who "lose" money are the people to whom that money belonged in the first place.

No agenda by the media. That wording was "accidentally" misleading