{"id":2357,"date":"2017-10-03T06:43:30","date_gmt":"2017-10-03T10:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/?p=2357"},"modified":"2017-10-03T06:43:30","modified_gmt":"2017-10-03T10:43:30","slug":"are-you-are-being-liked-by-the-irs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/are-you-are-being-liked-by-the-irs\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You Are Being \u201cLiked\u201d by the IRS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Sorensen of WSU News<\/a> has reported that \u201cThe next time you want to tweet something about how much you hate paying taxes, or what you did with your\u00a0huge tax refund<\/a>, you might want to rethink it.\u201d Mr. Sorensen referenced the work of Kimberly Houser, a clinical assistant professor of business law at Washington State University\u2019s Carson College of Business, that the IRS is breaking several laws by mining large data sets and combing through social media posts (like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter) in its search for taxpayers to audit.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sorensen reported that \u201cAccording to information obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, the IRS also has violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and legal precedent by obtaining electronic communications without a warrant. This practice, authorized in the IRS audit manual, contradicts the 2010 U.S. v. Warshak<\/em> ruling, which reaffirmed citizens have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their emails, and the government needs a warrant to obtain them. The IRS agreed in a Senate hearing to cease reviewing emails but said nothing about texts and social media.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you wish to read more about Ms. Houser, you can read her 55-page paper in the summer issue of the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Whereas the IRS\u2019s Discriminant Inventory Function System (DIF) has been the basis for selecting taxpayers for an audit, it appears that the IRS is now using information technology to broaden its audit capabilities.\u00a0 Patrick Lucas Austin<\/a> reported on the above article and stated that in addition to the \u201c32,000 categories of metadata and 1 million unique \u201cattributes\u201d to determine who to investigate,\u201d the IRS has used Google Maps. Mr. Austin mentions that the IRS obtained photos of a homeowner\u2019s association to revoke its tax exemption.<\/p>\n

Mr. Austin stated that \u201cmeans your pictures of your new sports car could put you in the spotlight, especially if it coincides with a mistake or two made when you filed your taxes. Organizations like the ACLU have\u00a0filed lawsuits<\/a>\u00a0against the IRS ending with rulings stating the agency can no longer collect personal emails without a warrant, and government officials have\u00a0criticized the agency<\/a>\u2014in 2015 South Dakota Senator John Thune slammed the IRS for \u201cmisguided decisions\u201d and participating in this illegal practice at the detriment of consumer privacy. It\u2019s possible watchdog organizations will succeed in putting a stop to IRS\u2019 social media stalking, but for now,\u00a0<\/strong>it\u2019s another example of seemingly innocuous information posted online being used to target individuals, whether it\u2019s to advertise to them or to audit them.\u201d<\/p>\n

When we represent a taxpayer before the IRS, one of the representation steps we take is to Google the taxpayer to see what we can find on line. Why? Because we know that the IRS will be doing the same.<\/p>\n

If you would like to discuss your business or personal tax planning<\/a>, tax preparation<\/a> and other financial concerns with an experienced tax professional, we invite you to call 610-594-2601<\/a> today to make an appointment at our Exton PA CPA office<\/a> to discuss your situation. You can also schedule a consultation at Click Here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2017 Keystone Financial Solutions, P.C.\u00a0 All rights reserved.\u00a0 BE SURE TO READ THE DISCLAIMER PAGE: Content in this blog is for educational purposes only and should not be considered as the rendering of tax, legal or investment advice. The publisher of this blog makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of any information herein, will not be liable for any errors or omissions, and shall not assume liability for any losses, injuries, or damages from the display or use of this information.<\/strong><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Sorensen of WSU News has reported that \u201cThe next time you want to tweet something about how much you hate paying taxes, or what you did with your\u00a0huge tax refund, you might want to rethink it.\u201d Mr. Sorensen referenced the work of Kimberly Houser, a clinical assistant professor of business law at Washington State […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-irs-tax-planning-ideas-tips-news","7":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9W9tf-C1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2357"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2360,"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2357\/revisions\/2360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keysolutions.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}