There has been an increase in cases of tax fraud in the last few years. According to an IRS report, tax compliance has gone down from 83.7 percent to 83.1 percent. Many taxpayers are finding it difficult to pay taxes because of the economic crisis. Although most taxpayers comply with tax laws, some resort to tax fraud. Alerts regarding fraud in taxes will help taxpayers stay updated and aware about the latest tax scams in the country.

Tax fraud is sometimes carried out by taxpayers who are not seasoned criminals or fraudsters. The most common fraud in taxes is that of filing fraudulent tax returns. Tax alerts concerning false tax returns shares that this year the IRS received over one million tax returns that were termed ‘potentially fraudulent’.

Although tax scammers steal the identities of many taxpayers to file false returns on their behalf, average taxpayers file fake tax returns on their own name to claim huge refunds. Tax alerts update on tax fraud includes two recent cases where average taxpayers filed fraudulent tax returns to claim huge tax refunds.

A 25-year old Oregon woman was charged with filing false tax returns on her income to get $2.1 million in tax refunds. She put her income as $3 million using tax software. She was arrested and is facing trial.

In another case, a prisoner in a New York prison was found to be filing false tax returns for years from various prisons till his fraud was discovered. He was looking to get $890 million in tax refunds and had once received $327,456 in refunds from the IRS. Alerts for busted tax scams help taxpayers in avoiding taking a path that only means trouble.