IRS to audit Ferrari and Rolls Royce owners

That has to be a joke. It's none of the government's business if people can afford the cars they drive or not.

 

April Fools? Way late though. If its not, that sucks. How can they even do that? Also, isn't that some kind of government stereotyping? Most mercs on the road cost more than the rollers.

 

this would be an AWFUL lot of work for the IRS to actually bother to do. i imagine there are a dozen other more-obvious audit-triggers in your actual federal tax forms.

now the state revenue guys would have, in theory, easy access to that data.

and the fact of the matter is, if you were going to do that, you wouldn't access REGISTRATION information, you'd access PROPERTY TAX / EXCISE TAX information instead (most states have this, i believe), which would be no more effort than registration data and would be WAY more informative, since usually the property tax is actually linked to the value of the car - so the 308 owners would have piddling property tax and thus might as well own a beater toyota camry.

my two pennies.

doody.

 

Time to convert to Lamborghinis ? Cmon now you really have a reason to
see the light. BananaBoat, Clax, and....... ?


The IRS agent does not know what a Lamborghini is.

 

of course. but that's not unlike saying "once you part the red sea, it's easy to walk across it"

the states have tough times communicating offenses amongst themselves from registry to registry. and this is IMPORTANT for them to do vis-a-vis insurance information.

i find it hard to believe that all 50 states are going to trivially up and get their data to the feds.

certainly i'ts possible, i just have a hard time believing it's probable. as i said, i think there are probably a dozen other indicators in your return that can more accurately trigger an audit.

think about it: what percentage of people cheating big-time on their taxes are buying six-figure cars? it's a tiny percentage. it doesn't make a ton of sense.

would be curious to hear DrTax's opinion of this, seeing as he's ex-IRS....

doody.

 

Here's a related story I read in today's newpaper:

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TAX_DATA_MINING?SITE=APWEB&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

 

ah, yes, lovely taxachusetts. it makes a TON of sense for states to crossref their own data. and as the story discusses, cars are just one piece of the equation (rationally). and i'm sure once they find an offender, they tell the feds all about it.

doody.

 

Dr. Tax "could" be undercover IRS. LOL

 

geeze , so i work forever to buy a 25 year old beater 308 and now they may come and audit me and take it all away.............geeze. i have friends with bass boats that cost more that a 308 or a mondail. and they have to go buy huge full size 38k trucks to tow the toys with. crap.

 

Yes but the truck can be fully written off as a business expense.

 

since you said that and this is a tax/IRS thread, dont you have to get a business license and have a seperate place to operate ect ect ?????. i have been using a great CPA for the last few years and i am wanting to go the LLC route and get my " muscle car" business up and running. i have not had to have a license as of yet, but i am wondering how the hell you can write stuff off every year and not have a business and a license. it seems like it would be wrong and illegal to do so. i dont want to get the IRS pissed off at me, nor do i want to have to worry if / when i drop the hammer on a 308. my " regular" job as a jet mechanic pays pretty well and i am SINGLE! this tax stuff makes my head hurt, i dont understand most of it!!!!

 

Ask your CPA.

 

ssshhhh their watching us.

 

I used to be a VP at an information services company that specializes in automotive work. We had an income model that took into consideration income, occupation, homeownership and auto ownership information to create a measurement of wealth that translated into an income figure. It was a well known fact around the office that the IRS had (many years ago) made inquiries about using the model to profile tax payers and determine whom to audit. The company refused to allow it.

Not all states tax people on the value of their cars, so registration information is the way to go.

 

The states don't have to do anything. There are private companies that have registration information that can run a list of Ferrari owners. Then all the Feds have to do is match it to the tax files.

 

Grandma. Can I register my car in your name ?


What about the land you have around Kalamath Falls ?

 

If Grandma lives in Oregon, you should do that anyway (Oregon has very inexpensive registration fees and no personal property tax).

However, to the question of how the IRS would get the registration information, Oregon, at least, makes it available on a CD that anyone can buy.

OK, maybe you don't want to register it in Oregon ;-)

 

And, as a follow up......The IRS will be purusing F-chat so if you own a Ferrari and they see you on F-chat your in double trouble.

 

Quick story from back in my revenuer days (which were a long time ago). The IRS got this bug up thier hinney that folks who drove Mercedes were tax cheats. So they dialed up the local tax records to give them the lising of all Mercedes owners. Only problem was that the data clerk thought that the IRS was asking for Mercurys, not Mercedes. Thus, the IRS ended up an audit list of people who owned Mercurys, not Mercedes. The punch line was that the IRS did catch a bunch of crooks, even if they drove Mercurys. I don't know if this was a true story, but it was making the rounds.

Truth is that you have to get over being worried about being audited. If you haven't done anything wrong, an IRS audit is just a PIA.

Oh, and yes, the IRS did try lifestyle audits a while back and caught a lot of flak over this. But, who knows, eh?

Dr "I was just kidding about owning a Ferrari" Tax

 

An Italian gentleman told me that if you live and Italy and buy even a used Ferrari you can expect to be audited soon.

Never thought the IRS would be that devious though. Well, one would expect them to try...

 

Sounds like more of the war on drugs program....