Speaker 1: Well, there's a couple of things. You know. Unfortunately, right
now is also find time for tax fraud, and.
Speaker 2: You know it's a big part.
Speaker 1: It's one of the fastest growing segments of identity theft,
so people need to be.
Speaker 2: Aware and beware.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Carrie. Let'sa's financial survival Network where you
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Speaker 2: And welcome.
Speaker 4: You are listening to the Financial Survival Network. I'm your host, Carrie.
Let's say it's we're at the end of March here already,
just a few more days. And you know what that means.
April fifteenth is just a few weeks away. So the
question is are you ready for it? What's going to happen?
What do you do if you get a tax lean?
What are your remedies? And our good friend Paul Osters
with us from better Qualified dot com. Paul, so April
fifteenth right around the corner, what should you be doing?
Speaker 1: Well, there's a couple of things. You know. Unfortunately, right
now is also fine time for tax fraud.
Speaker 2: And you know it's a big part.
Speaker 1: It's one of the fastest growing segments of identity theft,
so people need to be aware and beware of. There's
a couple of different, very very prominent scams right now.
Speaker 2: One is the smishing.
Speaker 1: An SMS text message get sent out to somebody claiming
that they had trouble processing your refund. They need to
speak to an agent immediately. They give you an eight
hundred number or an eight eight eight number to call into.
But obviously you're not calling the IRS, you're calling the
identity thieves. They will also do this with robocalls. They're
you know, calling million and millions of Americans every day
again claiming that it's agent oster from the IRS and
there seems to be fraud associated with your account. We
just need to verify some information. And the reason why
these scams are so good is they already have some
of your information. So they might verify your actual physical
mailing address, they might verify your data birth, they might
verify your email, your phone number. Then they're going to
ask you right so you're saying, okay, they have all
this information, it's probably a legitimate call. Then they will
ask you, can you please verify your Social Security number?
And people have a tendency to fall prey to that
type of situation. This can also be done via an email,
which we call phishing, and it's the same situation. The
email looks like it's from your bank, it looks like
it's from the IRS. They're very, very convincing. Unfortunately, again
now with AI, the bad actors are using AI to
perpetrate a lot of these crimes.
Speaker 2: So people just need to.
Speaker 1: If you're in a situation where someone calls you again,
the I r S will never ever call you.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: They have gotten a lot better over the years, but
they're still not calling taxpayers. So if you get a
text message like that, just don't answer it, you know,
b take control of the situation. You could call your
local I r S office, use a number that you
find obviously not the number that they provide in the
text or the email. If you get the phone call,
just simply hang up if you're concerned about it. Again,
take control of the situation. You drive the pathway from
your resources.
Speaker 2: Again, not from what they're providing you.
Speaker 1: The I R S recommends really two really really good
tips for protecting your identity. So, what happens in most
cases as people are filing fraudulent tax returns under your
Social Security number, and that could be to avoid that
person paying the taxes, you actually get you know, hit
with the tax it could ultimately for sure become a
tax lean. But the IRS suggests two things. One is
creating an identity protection pin an ip PIN, and it's
a six digit number. The IRS will not process a
tax return without providing that pin. So that's a really
good way to stop that fraudulent tax returns from being
filed under your Social Security number. The other thing that
people should do. Consumers might not be aware, but we
all have the ability to create an online account with
the IRS, and there's lots of different reasons why people
create those accounts. You can get copies of your transcripts
and see your payment history, your tax returns. But the
problem is if the consumer doesn't open up this online account,
the identity thieves will, and once they open that account,
then it becomes that much easier for them to file
these fraudulent tax returns. So if you go to IRS
dot gov, go to IRS dot gov and you can
create your online portal password and pin protected. That is
also where you can create your IP pin, that identity
protection pin, that six digit pin that is necessary for
anyone including yourself, to file a tax return on your behalf.
Speaker 4: So you know that's you raise a really good point
here that will help you in any of your dealings
with the federal government, and that is that you create
one unified log in for everything Social Security, IRS and
a whole bunch of other different departments. And I think
it's called I can't remember the name of it now.
Speaker 2: I think it's id ME.
Speaker 4: I D ME, right, that's it, I D ME. And
if you haven't set that up, yeah, you need to
do it.
Speaker 2: Yep, yep.
Speaker 1: So you know, again those are just some you know, uh,
tax season specific threats for identity theft. Now, let's you know,
say that a tax lean gets filed against you, and
it could be erroneously or you could actually owe back taxes.
So it's really really important that you deal with this
head on. This is a problem that just keeps getting worse.
It does not just go away. You cannot ignore it,
bury your head in the sand and hope for the best.
You have to deal with this head on.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The good news is, in the current environment, the IRS
has been very very lenient, unintended and willing to accept
offers and compromise. So that means you're going to wind
up paying less for what you owe of the balance. Now,
obviously it's going to be based on your current income
and assets. But if you're really in a tough spot
and you couldn't pay the tax lane, the IRS is
somewhat understanding to that position. They will put you on
a payment plan and again they can certainly lower the
principal balance based upon your current economic situation.
Speaker 2: Mhm.
Speaker 4: So let's talk about the IRS with what's going on there.
I mean they're laying people off. You got Musk and
Doge basically saying your computers are garbage. They got to
be updated now, and we're going to be the ones
to do it. They said that between the Tech support
Department and the Programming department, they have like eight thousand
people and a seven billion dollars a year budget, which
has turned into a grift for the major contractors. You
think we might actually see an improvement in service from
this agency.
Speaker 1: I think there's no doubt you're going to see an
improvement in a lot of government agencies, So love him
or hate them. One of the mantras I've been saying,
you know, with the current administration in place and what
they're doing, is you can hate demand, but don't hate
the mission because you and I both pay taxes. And
the amount of fraud, the amount of wasteful spending that
has been uncovered in a very very short period of
time is just a it's breathtaking, and every American should
be angry, not at the administration for putting these processes
in place that are uncovering this. They should be mad
at the past administrations. And I'm talking both sides of
the Aisle is Hana. This is not a partisan you know,
uh project. This is not something that the Republicans are
saying the Democrats did it. It's not the Republicans are
saying everybody has done it. Everyone's talked about, you know,
all these pork belly projects and.
Speaker 2: All this stuff.
Speaker 1: And again, even myself, I knew that there was a
certain amount of stuff that always gets thrown in these bills.
I didn't realize that some of it was going, you know,
into certain classes in the middle of the Congo and
you know, you're and we're not talking tens of thousands
of dollars, we're talking new this.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So again that has a direct impact me on me
as a taxpayer. So I'm angry that all the past administrations.
I don't Again, it doesn't matter to me whether it
was a Republican or Democratic administration. They're all guilty. They
all let this happen under their watch.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, well it's a grift. It's a giant grift.
Party doesn't matter. It's the uniparty, And you should be
angry at the politicians, both current and former, for allowing
the scam to occur and throwing US thirty six trillion
into debt thirty.
Speaker 2: Seven and with no end in sight.
Speaker 4: Hey, before we continue on this line, I just got
an email and it says there's now an easy pass
scam that they're using to text. They text that there's
a problem with your easy pass and they want to
pay the Yeah, your regardssons.
Speaker 1: I've gotten it. So it's it comes from it's not
just easy pass. A lot of them are are more generic.
They say there's a problem with the toll provider in
your state, And again, depending upon what's happening in that
person's life they be, they can fall victim. Again, it's
very very easy for people to fall victim. Here, you're
in the middle of a life event, crisis, whatever may
be happening. Maybe you're looking, you're in the middle of
purchasing a home, or you know, some other financial endeavor,
and you don't want this to have a negative impact
on your credit. So people wind up just paying it,
or even worse, they're providing more and more non public information,
sensitive data and information where they can now steal even
more money. So just paying a toll that you know
you should have had to pay in the first place,
that's not good. But giving them access to whether it's
your bank accounts or your tax returns, you know, that
could be one hundred times worse.
Speaker 2: So again, I got one. I got one just last week,
well a couple. I've gotten a few of them. Actually,
this one in.
Speaker 4: The last week says please pay the tolls on time,
thank you for your cooperation.
Speaker 2: And it's telling me, you know, to go to sun Pass.
You know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I go to my son Pass because I'm
in Florida and I've got money in the account. Everything
is paid, nothing is behind, you know. Yep, and you
know it's just another scam to getting back to this doge.
This is necessary. I think every level of government should
be doing doage here. If they're spending more than like
one hundred million a year, they should have a government
efficiency department to see that they're spending it all wisely
and that we're not getting scammed.
Speaker 1: Yep again once again the general public. There should be
way more transparency, and they you know, by design, they
wanted us taxpayers to think that it was not easy
to access certain informations. Where is the money going and
how is it being spent, and how much money was
being allocated? Look at look at how much money we're
sending to these private universities that, by the way, some
of them are the richest companies in the world. They
have endowments that are worth billions of dollars. They could
they could self fund themselves for one hundred years, and
yet their their tuition is out of control, so they're
putting they're putting students in a really bad position by
forcing them to take out exorbitant student loans. So they're
collecting all these tuitions. Their endowments are making money every
single day without doing anything, and we're sending them four
hundred million dollars a year.
Speaker 4: You know, it's it's even worse than that because Harvard
was one of the main shareholders in a payday lending scheme.
You know. So it's not bad enough that they're screwing
you on the student loans, but then you.
Speaker 2: Know you're going to be paying for payday lending, right.
Speaker 1: These are These are investment banks and again privately held
for profit companies. These are I don't care you know
how they put you know, their forward facing, this is
what we do. These are companies. These are very very
large corporations. There their monies are being handled by wealth advisors,
ginormous private equity firms that again are generating them millions
of dollars every single year on top of their tuition,
and yet the government is subsidizing them by sending them
hundreds of millions of dollars. So something, something does not
make sense to me. There, Put that money back into
the system. Put that money back into financial aid for
students so they don't have to borrow so much money
to start. So these are all Every single day I
scratch my head and I say, I can't believe that.
I can't believe that. I can't believe that. And it's
going to get worse before it's get better. And this
ripping off the band aid approach is not popular with everybody,
but there's no way around it. We were literally good,
we were going to go bankrupt sooner than later, all
the smoke and mirrors trying to handle this debt. Meanwhile,
we're selling off tons of property real estate in our
country to foreign entities because we're trying to pay off
our debt. We're trying to you know, the foreign countries
are calling their notes and saying you have to pay us,
and we don't have the money to pay out because
it's literally no money. So we're selling off operations, were
selling off land and real estate, and that's not that's not.
Speaker 2: In anybody's best interests.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad they ripped the band aid off. I
hope they continue to rip the band aid off and
just continue to expose the wasteful spending. They might be
able to cut our taxes without cutting any programs.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Now when I say.
Speaker 1: Programs, I'm not talking about right, I'm not talking about
the people who work in those agencies because there's so much.
Speaker 2: Fat, you know, they everyone got bent.
Speaker 1: Out of shape because they were asked to reply to
an email about what you did the week before, and
a lot of people didn't reply. You know why, because
they don't really work there.
Speaker 2: They didn't even get the email.
Speaker 1: They don't get the emails because they never check their emails,
because it's a no show job. No show jobs are
all over this country again, millions, maybe billions of dollars
being paid out that people who do nothing.
Speaker 2: Who do nothing, Yeah, no show jobs.
Speaker 4: Hey, Just to go back to the college endowments here,
This is as of the fiscal year twenty three. It's
higher now by about ten percent. Harvard University number one.
I happen to read that they had fifty two billion
this year their endowment. University of Texas, that's a public
education institution in Texas, but it's funded by all this
oil money. Forty five billion, Yale University forty one, Stanford
thirty six and a half, Princeton thirty four, MIT twenty three.
So that now we get into the poorer schools. But
even the lowest one on the list here, University of
Virginia has ten billion.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'd like to be that Bork Gary. I'd
like to be that tour.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I really think ill for them. And they
lost money in their endowment in the twenty three what
a shame. But yeah, on topkins in twenty three their
endowment went up twenty eight percent. I don't know if
they're in those payday loans or not, but those payday
loans are very profitable.
Speaker 1: Yep, absolutely crazy again, I hope you know, you know,
people are concerned about those stock market, people are concerned
about the economy. But at least we will have a good,
you know, launching point. And it's not going to be
from smoking mirrors. It's going to be Hey, this is
what it is. This is what the value of things
really are. And look, I think it's going to have it.
You've already saw the last report. It's having a positive
impact impact and inflation because we have to stop just
printing money and giving money away and that's going to
help us.
Speaker 2: That's going to help.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the combination of cutting the spending, upping the tariffs,
because that'll bring in selling the Trump Gold card immigration
visa five million each according to the Secretary of Commerce.
I think he said that he had sold like one
hundred thousand of them already.
Speaker 2: That could bring in a trillion and you look at
the I think it was.
Speaker 1: The announcement was yesterday from Hyundai, big big deal. And
again the administration is telling all of these foreign corporations,
we want to do business with you, but do business
here if you want to. If you want us to
buy the Hyundai, build the car here, American workers build it.
It's your corporation. But that's how you avoid the tariffs.
If we're if we're importing all of this stuff, that
makes us crazy. And what more fair and equitable way
to say, I will tax you. I'm gonna put the
same tariffs that you put on us. Now, how come
that hasn't been happening since day one?
Speaker 2: And this just happened today.
Speaker 4: I don't know if you've caught the news, but the
EU agreed to only put a two and a half
percent duty on vehicles coming in from the United States.
Speaker 2: Prior it was twelve and a half percent.
Speaker 4: Our duty on EU vehicles like Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen
was only two and a half. So reciprocal tariffs are
working already.
Speaker 1: They're working like a charm. And again, the average person
got nervous. They didn't understand there were lots of there's
lots of fear mongering going on, and again it's not
the best situation or scenario for everybody, but it's something
that had to be done. So nobody likes change. But unfortunately,
if we didn't change, you know, things would have just
kept and keep, you know, worse and worse and worse.
In this country.
Speaker 4: Absolutely could not agree with you more. And you know,
the average tariff in the United States, and this is
with trade being dramatically understated because there's a scam that
they use called to Minimus exports where it doesn't even
go through customs says the value of this stuff is
next to nothing, so there's no duty or tariff do
But our average tariff on what's reported is about two
percent eighty billion a year. So look, I'm in favor
of a national sales tax, get rid of the income
tax altogether, easier to administer and you're paying for it
in any way. Let's take the middleman out and it's
automatically withheld. Sure there'll be people looking to subvert it
and get around it and all that, that's just normal business.
But easier to enforce us sales tax than an income tax.
Speaker 2: I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1: And then that's you know, you're getting taxed more if
you're spending and buying, you know, but that's the way
it should be.
Speaker 4: And then Luton Stave, you know, get taxed right exactly,
exact exempt basics like food, like drugs, like all the
stuff you really need.
Speaker 2: But otherwise, you know, let's do it. Hey, Paul, appreciate
you coming on. We got to run now.
Speaker 4: Just tell us where we find you again, how we
connect with you on the web.
Speaker 1: So go to better qualified dot com. Better qualified dot com,
we actually put together a self help guide, you know,
regarding identity theft protection.
Speaker 2: Every link that.
Speaker 1: You need for the I R S, for your IP pen,
for your online account, all that stuff is there with
step by step instruction.
Speaker 2: So just go to better qualified dot com.
Speaker 4: Very cool man, Hey, thanks for coming on. It's always
great to welcome to you. The link to Paul's site
is in the show notes this interview. Make sure you
click it get that guide. While you're at the site.
Financial Survival Network dot com, please sign up for your
free newsletter. Like over seventy five thousand of.
Speaker 2: You out there have done. Paul, We'll talk to you
again real soon. Be well.
Speaker 3: Thanks Kerry good too, thanks for listening to Carrie Letz's
Financial Survival Network, your solution to today's trying times. For
the latest, go to Financial Survivalnetwork dot com. Financial Survival
Network now more than ever,