How to Defend Yourself Against the IRS

Using harrowing true examples, two leading tax lawyers offer sound protection from a potentially devastating tax audit and describe several legal ways to reduce annual income tax

Tax lawyers Frankel and Fink cover an extraordinarily broad battleground in this chronicle of warfare between taxpayers trying to get along honestly (or not) and federal agents out to spear every phony leaf on the money tree. Both sides use bold tactics. The government may reconstruct an abortionist's under-reported gross income by multiplying the established surgical fee by the number of morphine tablets dispensed in a year; a tax delinquency suspect may explain expenditures beyond recorded income as cash-in-the-mattress withdrawals. Claims of privacy are no protection as agents probe bank accounts, quiz associates, etc., to improve a one-in-10 conviction average. Most of us spend half our time on tax-related matters, including earning the tax money, note the authors. Keep a diary, they urge, and consider income-splitting, incorporating and other tax-reducing techniques. An appendix provides an actual IRS agents' handbook. BOMC, Fortune and Conservative Book Club alternates. December
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Frankel, a trial lawyer, and Fink, a tax attorney, have extensive experience dealing with the IRS. This well-written book presents interesting, readable, and thought-provoking case studies that lead to a discussion of how the IRS picks audits, the procedures they must follow, procedures the taxpayer should follow, the IRS in criminal proceedings against a taxpayer, the taxpayer's defense, and legal tax reduction techniques. An appendix includes the classification manual that the IRS uses to screen returns for possible audit. Emphasis is placed on accurate tax preparation and communication with a tax preparer and assurance that the odds are small that one's return will be audited. Recommended. Steven J. Mayover, Free Lib. of Philadelphia
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.