Category Archives: tax

Hacker, money launderer sentenced to prison for scamming tax preparers and COVID-19 relief programs

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A federal judge sentenced two men to prison for a coordinated scheme to hack into tax preparation firms, steal personal information, file fraudulent unemployment claims and income tax returns and then launder the money. The fraudulent unemployment claims aimed to exploit a COVID-19 relief program that netted $280,000 in improper benefits from the state of Washington, the Justice Department announced Thursday. They also included attempts to seek $2.6 million in tax refunds. Bamidele Muraina, a Nigerian national whom DOJ said led the effort to steal identities, received five years and 10 months in prison, as well as three years of supervised release and an order to pay more than $500,000 in restitution. For leading the money laundering leg of the operation, Gabriel Kalembo received four years and two months in prison, along with two years of supervised release and an order to pay nearly $300,000. Starting at least in January […]

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Ransomware and the Tax Code’s Perverse Incentive

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Ransomware payments are deductible, say tax experts: That’s the shocking finding from a recent investigation.
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Blue dot raises $32M for AI that helps businesses manage their tax accounting

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Artificial intelligence has become a fundamental cornerstone of how a lot of business software works, providing a useful boost in reading, understanding, and using the often-fragmented trove of data that organizations generate these days. In the latest development, an Israeli startup called Blue dot, which uses AI to help companies handle their tax accounting, is […] Continue reading Blue dot raises $32M for AI that helps businesses manage their tax accounting→

Boast.ai raises $23M to help businesses get their R&D tax credits

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Nobody likes dealing with taxes — until the system works in your favor. In many countries, startups can receive tax credits for their R&D work and related employee cost, but as with all things bureaucracy, that’s often a slow and onerous task. Boast.ai aims to make this process far easier, by using a mix of […] Continue reading Boast.ai raises $23M to help businesses get their R&D tax credits→

Chinese banks require clients to use tax programs laced with backdoors, report says

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When a Chinese bank asked a new client to use a specific kind of tax software as a condition of doing business, the company didn’t know that the tax technology came with a backdoor that would give hackers a new way in, according to research from Trustwave. The Chinese bank had told the U.K.-based defense contractor that the Chinese government required firms to use that specific software tool to pay local taxes. However, findings published Tuesday by the security vendor Trustwave spotlight how the tax software’s developer has relied on a number of subcontractors to build software flaws into other software tools for years. The programs are required to be used through the Chinese government’s Chinese Golden Tax Project, a tax system launched in the 1990s meant to streamline tax administration, according to Trustwave. The security company did not identify the Chinese bank nor the U.K.-based defense contractor. The revelation that Beijing mandates […]

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Preventing Tax Identity Theft, FTC and Robocallers, Google Photos Incident

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In episode 107 for February 10th 2020: preventing tax identity theft and other tax scams, the FTC taking a stand against companies that support robocallers, and details on the incident where videos from Google Photos were being sent to strangers. ** Sh… Continue reading Preventing Tax Identity Theft, FTC and Robocallers, Google Photos Incident→

Teen entered ‘dark rabbit hole of suicidal content’ online

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Molly Russell’s grieving father has backed a psychiatrists’ report, saying that tech companies must be forced to hand over anonymized data. Continue reading Teen entered ‘dark rabbit hole of suicidal content’ online→