B. Frivolous tax submissions. The provision increases the penalty for
filing frivolous tax returns or for filing frivolous tax submissions from
$500 to $5,000 and expands the penalty to apply to all taxpayers and all
types of Federal taxes. This provision applies to submissions for collection
due process, installment agreements, offers-in-compromise and taxpayer
assistance orders. This provision becomes effective for all submissions and
issues raised after the date on which the Secretary first prescribes the
required list of frivolous positions. Raises $30 million over ten
years.
C. Increased criminal fines and penalties. The provision increases
criminal fines and prison sentences for the three most common offenses:
failure to file, filing a false or fraudulent return and tax evasion. These
proposed changes are substantially similar to increased criminal penalty
provisions passed by the Senate in last year’s
JOBS Act. One notable change is the
creation of a new aggravated failure to file offense. While retaining the
current misdemeanor penalty for non-filers needed to address simple
violations, the new provision creates an aggravated offense to address more
serious noncompliant behavior (“aggravated” means failing to file for 3 or
more years with an aggregate tax liability of $100,000 or more). Raises
$5 million over ten years.
Efforts to impede military recruitment are already having some success. The
recruiters themselves, under increasing pressure to meet their quotas, are
increasingly cutting corners. And this is happening at the same time as
muckrakers in the media are turning a spotlight on recruiting techniques:
In , Army Staff
Sgt. Thomas Kelt left a
voice mail message on the cell phone of Christopher Monarch, 20, of Spring,
telling him to show up at the Greenspoint recruiting office by 2
p.m.
or a
warrant would be issued for his arrest, according to Monarch and an Army
official.
Monarch said he didn’t receive the message until after the designated time.
“I was scared,” he said.
He said he had not made an appointment to meet the recruiter and was not
interested in joining the military.
Monarch said he called Kelt the next day to clear up the matter. Kelt told
him threatening to issue an arrest warrant was a “marketing technique,”
according to Monarch, a version of the story the Army confirmed.
As a result of stories like this, the Army is going to hold a one-day “values
stand down” in which recruiters put their normal recruiting activities on hold
for a day for a remedial lesson in whatever passes for ethics in Army
recruiting land.
Isn’t it cute when Democratic legislators get all gussied up in their best
rhetoric and go out on the town? Witness Representative
Ellen
Tauscher:
Republicans in Congress have stacked the deck on today’s fiscally
irresponsible supplemental spending bill: forcing members to either appear
unpatriotic or support a cash-cow bill stuffed with pork projects that fail
to either help our troops or meet any “emergency” need.
The Majority leadership is engaging in a heinous trend: using America’s
fighting men and women as human shields to pass this pork-laden legislation.
Gotta like that. Of course, when it came time to put her vote where her mouth
was, Representative Tauscher joined 142 of her Democrat colleagues in the
House and voted for the pork and the war that comes with it.
