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No one wants to pay more taxes than they are lawfully required to. But sometimes in their quest for lower taxes, many people will fall prey to many scams that promise a lower tax bill. In the end, these scams are always more trouble than they are worth.

My name is Drew Miles, and I am known as the Tax Savings Attorney. My goal is to help as many people lower their taxes to the absolute legal minimum, without any risk of facing problems with the IRS. I don't want anyone going through an audit or facing IRS penalties, so I want to show you a few common tax scams to look out for.

One of the most common scams comes from those who oppose any taxation by the IRS. They claim that there is no law requiring you to pay taxes, and they say that filing is voluntary. Whether or not the law is on their side, if you don't file your taxes, the IRS is going to come after you. A similar scam is to file a "zero return" claiming no income. This raises a huge red flag with the IRS, and is going to get you in trouble.

Another common scam comes from those who prepare your taxes, and claim they can greatly reduce your taxes or promise you a large refund. Dishonest return preparers can cause many headaches for taxpayers who fall victim to their schemes. Such preparers derive financial gain by skimming a portion of their clients' refunds and charging inflated fees for return preparation services.

Taxpayers should choose carefully when hiring a tax preparer. As the old saying goes, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is." And remember, no matter who prepares the return, the taxpayer is ultimately responsible for its accuracy. Since 2002, the courts have issued injunctions ordering dozens of individuals to cease preparing returns, and the Department of Justice has filed complaints against dozens of others. During fiscal year 2005, more than 110 tax return preparers were convicted of tax crimes.

One common scam involves offshore transactions. Individuals continue to try to avoid U.S. taxes by illegally hiding income in offshore bank and brokerage accounts or using offshore credit cards, wire transfers, foreign trusts, employee leasing schemes, private annuities or life insurance to do so. The IRS and the tax agencies of U.S. states and possessions continue to aggressively pursue taxpayers and promoters involved in such abusive transactions. If you think that an offshore account is the ticket to lower taxes, you need to think again.

People always ask me "Drew Miles, with all these scams out there, how can I legally lower my taxes?" The short answer is by taking advantage of the overlooked legal tax deductions, which can drastically reduce your taxable income. The most powerful tax saving strategy you can use is to clearly understand the distinction between your personal and business expenses, and work to legally convert your largest personal expenses into legitimate business expenses. Its the small items that most preparers overlook that add up to big savings.

When you apply legal tax saving strategies to your finances, your taxes will not only be lower than if you had listened to any of these unscrupulous tax scammers, but you will not have to worry about being challenged by the IRS.