Category: Audits and Enforcement

The IRS can freeze refunds on millions of returns each year through identity-verification holds that may delay payments for weeks or longer, leaving some legitimate filers waiting past the standard 21-day processing window. The agency’s Taxpayer Protection Program (TPP) flags some returns it considers suspicious, triggering letters that can halt refunds until the taxpayer verifies…

The Internal Revenue Service warned taxpayers about “ghost” tax return preparers in its 2025 Dirty Dozen list of tax scams, saying these paid preparers may lure filers with promises of inflated refunds, then disappear without signing the return or leaving traceable identification. The scheme shifts full legal liability onto the taxpayer while the preparer pockets…

The IRS enforces a set of overlapping deadlines that determine how far back it can review a tax return, assess additional tax, and pursue collection. Most taxpayers assume the agency has only three years to act, but specific exceptions can stretch that window to six years, ten years, or eliminate it entirely. With the IRS…

Freshly published IRS data for the 2026 filing season shows average tax refunds running well below the levels President Trump promoted when he sold his signature tax overhaul to American families. The gap between the refund sizes Trump promised and what early filers are actually receiving has reignited debate over whether the 2017 tax cuts…

Millions of Americans earning money through payment apps and online marketplaces face a shifting set of IRS reporting rules that could trigger compliance letters if they fail to act. The Form 1099-K, which tracks payments processed through platforms like Venmo, PayPal, and Etsy, has been at the center of a years-long regulatory tug-of-war over how…

Massachusetts State Auditor Diana DiZoglio has turned a series of state government accountability fights into a direct confrontation with the Legislature, one that could reshape how taxpayers track public spending. Her office identified $12,322,688 in public benefit fraud in a single fiscal year and flagged serious contracting failures in the state’s emergency shelter system. When…

Billions of dollars that Congress already approved are no longer sitting safely under President Donald Trump’s thumb. After months of legal challenges, judges and state attorneys general have begun to pry open what had looked like a locked vault of frozen grants, education aid, and infrastructure money. The emerging pattern is not just a series…

President Donald Trump is promising a banner year for tax refunds, with his signature cuts poised to fatten checks for households that have already weathered years of inflation and higher borrowing costs. Yet the very agency that has to deliver those windfalls is heading into filing season with fewer workers, a growing backlog and a…

The Internal Revenue Service is quietly tightening the rules that decide how fast your refund hits your bank account. If anything about your return or your payment details looks off, the IRS can park your money for weeks until you prove who you are and where the refund should go. The one document that increasingly…

Tax season is colliding with a rare legal moment that could put unusually large checks in some Americans’ mailboxes. Between new tax law provisions, high stakes tariff litigation and a headline grabbing lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, the outcome of several court fights will help decide who gets paid back and how much. At…