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Posts Tagged “

IRS

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deathwatch

Red Herring owes the taxman $2 million, ex-employees say

The longevity of troubled tech publisher Red Herring was a mystery until one ex-employee enlightened me: Publisher Alex Vieux simply doesn't pay his bills. What a brilliant way to achieve positive cash flow! Alas, Vieux has encountered a creditor who won't be stiffed: the IRS. The agency is looking into Vieux's Herring for what may be $2 million in unpaid payroll taxes, ex-employees who have been contacted by investigators have told me. Vieux is experienced at dodging the taxman: Farley Duvall, a longtime lieutenant, told colleagues he'd fled French police seeking to seize company documents in Paris, and drove in the middle of the night to Switzerland, where he rebuilt the Herring's European operations. Now Swiss authorities are asking questions about — you guessed it — unpaid taxes. But it's the American taxman who may put Vieux behind bars. More »

6:00 AM on Tue Mar 18 2008
By Owen Thomas
1,649 views, 7 comments

Latest by fishneversleep: The first rule of Valleywag: never pitch Valleywag. The second rule: everything you read on Valleywag is true unless it would be funnier if it is not. I can't imagine how the idea of RH's man in Paris packing it up and more »

your privacy is an illusion

Your Facebook profile could show up in a tax audit

Dutch technology entrepreneur Evert Bopp had the pleasure of meeting with Irish tax inspectors last Tuesday. Things got really fun when one of them pulled out printed copies of Bopp's Facebook, Xing and LinkedIn profiles. "I was surprised," Bopp said. He shouldn't have been. A flack for the Revenue service told the Irish Independent auditors are free to use "any sources of information." You think the IRS policy is any different? It's one thing to get busted by the boss, quite another to get busted by the feds. (Photo by chadmill)

9:20 AM on Wed Feb 27 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
868 views, 4 comments

Latest by Evertb: It's funny really, this started as a small off-the-cuff posting on my blog ([tinyurl.com]) and it has now, after making several papers, ended on Valleywag! more »

crime

The taxman cometh to Yahoo

Salim Ismail's incompetence as a manager may have brought the wrath of the IRS down on Yahoo. One of his employees at Brickhouse, Yahoo's San Francisco incubator, has moved abroad while being classified, for tax purposes, as "working at home." There are a number of steps companies ought to take when employing a U.S. citizen living abroad, but Ismail apparently skipped them. Now, one of the employee's coworkers has received a summons from the IRS's Criminal Investigation Division, where are investigators are looking into a case of tax fraud. While any penalties Yahoo might pay are small in comparison to the Web giant's bottom line, they'd certainly speak to the sloppy management that's been given a pass at Yahoo for far too long. (Photo by irisheyes)

6:00 AM on Wed Jan 16 2008
By Owen Thomas
876 views, Comment

great moments in pr

FedEx tries to bury scary IRS story

FedEx was hit with a $319 million tax bill over the job classification of FedEx ground employees. A number of lawsuits have been filed by FedEx ground drivers who believed the company was responsible for their taxes; FedEx maintained that they were independent contractors. That's not the interesting part, though. FedEx, in a tried and true public relations move, "took out the trash" and released the bad news late Friday on a holiday weekend. The earliest story we could find on the IRS charge was released at 6:34 pm Eastern, well beyond when most people were reading news stories. Very clever, FedEx. (Photo by Brosner)

1:00 PM on Mon Dec 24 2007
By Jordan Golson
854 views, Comment