I’m embarrassed for this auditing firm. Here are their rates:

Non CPA – Staff – $35 / Hour
CPA – Non Partners – California Certified CPA – $50 / Hour
CPA – Partner – California Certified CPA – $85 / Hour

Sorry, but any auditor who charges rates like that is giving you an audit opinion that’s not worth the paper it’s printed on.

A list of the most popular methods for cooking the books.

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This one is good. The tax protesters say that they don’t have to file income taxes because it’s a voluntary system. And they volunteer to NOT file taxes. Part of what fuels this misconception that taxes are voluntary is a Supreme Court decision which said “[o]ur system of taxation is based upon voluntary assessment and payment, not upon distraint.”

Except that didn’t mean that filing tax returns is optional. It means that it is mandatory for people to volunteer the information about their income and expenses. It means that people tell the IRS how much they made and therefore how much they’re supposed to pay. This is done instead of the IRS coming in and initially telling taxpayers how much they are going to pay.

So the bottom line is that filing a tax return is, in fact, mandatory. You don’t get a choice.

Incidentally, one guy got sentenced to 13 years in prison for promoting and selling this concept that taxes are voluntary. Royal Lamarr Hardy called his scheme the “Reliance Defense,” and he also got tagged with a bill of almost $200,000 for restitution to the IRS for his nonsense.

It’s fun when AOL Money & Finance highlights posts from WalletPop because we’re a new blog and we’re trying to build our readership. It’s even more fun when they feature my posts!

This post is about promotions (particularly from retailers) that promise to give money to charity when you make a purchase…. and the problems those programs create.

Because I just can’t get enough of the Internal Revenue Service and our messed up American tax system, I’m going to treat my readers to 40 days of “frivolous tax arguments.” Settle down…. I’ll still be posting all of my regular fraud news and topics. This is just a bonus for the next (very painful) 40 days.

Although I have many arguments with our tax system, I don’t support the loons who promote these bogus reasons why they don’t have to pay taxes. The fact is, we’re all subject to the horrendous laws, and there aren’t any cute loopholes to help you get out of paying them.

The IRS recently published a huge document about all of those “frivolous tax arguments,” and I’ll be giving a short summary of each of their 40 points.

“Usana insider”

They still haven’t figured out where the leak is????

I find this interesting… D.J. Poyfair is the attorney representing Usana Health Sciences to the death against Barry Minkow. He is also the attorney who is representing a group of 15 “independent business owners” against Amway (Quixtar).

It appears as though Poyfair thinks Amway is an evil pyramid scheme, while Usana is …. oh, I don’t know… better? Less bad???

There was recently a hearing in California in the Quixtar IBO case, and there are a couple of interesting portions. Here’s one (bold added by me):

A reader calling himself Bob H. posted this comment under a post about Quixtar/Amway. I thought it was good enough to merit a post of its own.

What we have here is an illegal business that have bought protection from Republican Kingpins who happen to oversee the FTC. Times they are a changing though. Seems that Amway has taken setbacks of late in Great Britain, India and China and the stench of the tool and function scandal will not drift away easily. These pyramid scheme businesses seem to succeed as long as recruitment continues to expand, but the industry has been contracting in a downward spiral. Now there is a titanic struggle going on at the top of the Quixtar pyramid over control of the tool and function business which Alticor wants to retain by firing former IBO Kingpins who have operated their own pyramid inside the pyramid for years. To be fair, the fired IBOs have raised the issue of Quitar prices being so high that retail sales become impossible. This so called “IBO rebelion” has put a big crack in humpty dumpty’s shell. In a stare down contest, Alticor has blinked, is now scraping the Quixtar name and is probably going to retool the Amway North American Business Model entirely.

For all those brain washed people still involved in this scandal ridden business, I have a few questions: How are you (in good conscience) going recruit new prospects(marks) into this business by saying “that this isn’t Amway” knowing full well that it is and soon will be Amway? Are you going to tell them that the future legality of their business is being challenged as a pyramid scheme in the federal courts? Are you going to tell them that changes to the business model by Alticor may actually require them to sell Amway products to real world customers, and will you still encourage them to be the real consumer of their own wares?

Independent Business Owners have been their own best customers and, therefore, is it any surprise that over 99% of these sham businesses loose money every year. As a tax write off, the IRS has determined that many of these businesses are run in such a way that they will never show a profit and therefore are being denied the traditional business expense write offs allowed legit business.

The lost opportunity people in the MLM business incur is incredible. Consider the social stress on family, friends and community these “dream merchants” cause! It shouldn’t be difficult to feel, the sooner these pyramid schemes collapse, the better! Amway, Quixtar, Amway: Three Card Monte–Ponzi!!!

The December 24 issue of Fortune magazine has an article on Sam E. Antar, the man most widely known as the former CFO of Crazy Eddie, a New York City electronics retailer that went down in flames in 1987 after the discovery of massive fraud being perpetrated by Sam and his cousin Eddie.

The story begins:

Festivus for the rest of us – The holiday made famous by George Kostanza on Seinfeld makes its way to the real world.