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The IRS has released it’s annual list of their “Dirty Dozen” tax scams. The scams that they want taxpayers to avoid are:

• Telephone Excise Tax Refund Abuses
• Abusive Roth IRAs
• Phishing
• Disguised Corporate Ownership
• Zero Wages
• Return Preparer Fraud
• American Indian Employment Credit
• Trust Misuse
• Structured Entity Credits
• Abuse of Charitable Organizations and Deductions
• Frivolous Arguments

Many of the scams are completed and this list is really, really broad. How do you spot preparer fraud or frivolous arguments if you are a common taxpayer? While they do give some examples of frivolous arguments in the release, there are many more that are commonly made by tax cheats freedom fighters when they sell their particular method to an unsuspecting person.

The bottom line rule is that if it sounds too good to be true it is. You have to pay taxes and you cannot deduct personal expenses as business expenses no matter how hard you try. If someone is trying to sell you tax advice unsolicited, they’re probably cheating.