The IRS has issued regulations regarding the collection of the new excise tax on tanning salons effective July 1, 2010. This particular tax will be collected at the time the purchaser pays for the tanning services, which the provider, in turn, will transmit to the government along with IRS Form 720, Quarterly Federal Excise Tax Return.

The tax does not apply to phototherapy services offered by a licensed medical professional on his or her premises. The regulations also provide an exception for certain physical fitness facilities that offer tanning as an incidental service to members without a separately identifiable fee.

The following are tips released by the IRS regarding this new tax:

The IRS and Treasury Department invite comments.

Send submissions to: CC:PA:LPD:PR (REG-112841-10), Room 5203, Internal Revenue Service, PO Box 7604, Ben Franklin Station, Washington, DC 20044.

Submissions may be hand-delivered to: CC:PA:LPD:PR Monday through Friday between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. to: CC:PA:LPD:PR (REG-112841-10), Courier’s Desk, Internal Revenue Service, 1111 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC.

Submissions may be sent electronically via the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov (REG-112841-10).

A hedge fund is an unregulated aggressively managed private fund using advanced strategies offering higher returns on investments at usually higher risks than normal. Unlike mutual funds, a hedge fund requires a large amount of investment, usually by pooling together sophisticated investors with a taste for higher returns against higher risks.

In most countries, hedge funds are mostly unregulated. In the United States, hedge funds are exempted from registration and reporting requirements because of two provisions of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (Sections 3(c)1 and 3(c)7).

Section 3(c)1 exempts “any issuer with less than 100 investors” and Section 3(c)7 exempts “qualified purchasers” because they are not considered as “Investment Company.

The collapse of Long Term Capital Management in 1998 prompted calls for regulating hedge funds. Recently, the US Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC], and the UK Financial Services Authority [FSA] seem to be moving in that direction, especially with President Barack Obama’s plan to overhaul the financial sector, and recent EU regulations affecting UK’s hedge fund industry.

President Obama’s plan seems to involve mandatory registration and surveillance. The European Union legislation will force hedge funds and other financial institutions including all asset managers and investment companies to limit bonuses as well as adopt other requirements.

Recently George Soros told the congressional hearing of the hedge fund market, that “(the hedge fund market)….. justifies greater regulation.”

He said, “Clearly, hedge funds use leverage, and they contribute to market instability in times like the present when we are experiencing wholesale and disorderly deleveraging.”

The billionaire added “systemic risks need to be recognized and more closely monitored than they have been until now. The entire regulatory framework needs to be reconsidered and hedge funds need to be regulated within that framework.”

Issues concerning hedge fund growth and how it impacts a broader market have taken center stage with its ever increasing popularity year after year. Some even thinks that regulating hedge funds would be a mistake as it is designed by law to be extremely flexible.

After the hassle and bustle of preparing and filing your tax return, is the eagerly awaited time of year when you are due to get your refunds. Everyone is happy about getting their refunds, be it a large or small amount, because it means extra money for expenses, or for that special item you’ve been trying to save for to buy or for that special trip somewhere to ease a weary body and spirit, or maybe, though not very exciting, but extremely wise, to pay off debt.

The Internal Revenue Service has created a special site wherein you can check the status of your refund. But to do so, you will need the following information:

• Your Social Security Number (or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number)
• Your Filing Status
• The exact whole dollar amount of your refund

You only need to input in the appropriate boxes found at this website the required information to get the information on your tax refund.

Generally, you can get information about your refund 72 hours after IRS acknowledges receipt of your e-filed return, or three to four weeks after mailing a paper return. If you file a complete accurate tax return, your refund will be issued within six weeks from the received date. If you filed electronically, refund checks will be issued within three weeks after the acknowledgment date. Refunds from amended returns will be issued within 8–12 weeks. Injured spouse claims can take longer, depending on the circumstances. Refer to Topic 203 for more information concerning Injured Spouse Claims.

Taxpayers have two options for receiving their individual federal income tax refund: a paper check or direct deposit (electronic funds transfer) into a checking or savings account. Taxpayers may request that refunds be directly deposited in up to three separate accounts. The refund must be $1.00 or more. Form 8888, Direct Deposit of Refund to More Than One Account, will give taxpayers a choice of selecting up to three accounts such as checking, savings and retirement accounts. Note: You cannot have your refund deposited into more than one account if you file Form 8379 (PDF), Injured Spouse Allocation.

If six weeks has passed and you have not received your refund, please contact a customer service representative by calling 800-829-1040. From outside the U.S., call 215-516-2000. TTY/TDD: 800-829-4059.

Securing the future of children is every well-meaning parents dream. New York’s 529 plans offer a flexible, salary-deductible ways of starting a college fund for your children that can be availed by even non-residents. A 529 college savings program is a tax-advantaged savings plan that enables you to invest for college free of federal and, sometimes, state income taxes. You can use this investment to pay for tuition, certain room-and-board expenses, books, supplies, and other qualified higher-education expenses. The recent decision to allow relatives to contribute to the plan makes it even more attractive.

New York’s 529 College Savings Program Direct Plan is open to any U.S. citizen or resident alien who has a valid Social Security number or taxpayer identification number. You must have a valid U.S. residential address that is not a post office box. The person on whose behalf you’re opening the account (the beneficiary) must also be a U.S. citizen or resident alien with a valid Social Security number or taxpayer identification number. There are no income restrictions or state residency requirements.

Starting contribution is only $25, minimum subsequent contributions are $25, or you can set up a payroll deduction plan. With this option, contributions are only $15. Contributions to any of New York’s 529 plans of up to $5,000 per year for an individual taxpayer, and $10,000 per year for married taxpayers filing jointly, are deductible in computing New York taxable income. Only contributions made by the account owner, or if filing jointly, by the account owner’s spouse, are deductible. Non-resident participants will not receive the New York tax benefits; however they will still receive federal tax benefits. Contribution deadline is December 31 postmark. New York 529 plan allows contribution until the combined account balance reaches $235,000 in all of your New York 529 plans. The total amount in the plan can be higher as 529 plans typically increase the contribution limit over time, making it possible to be able to contribute more.

The 529 College Savings Program Direct Plan offers a comprehensive lineup of 16 investment options — three age-based options (conservative, moderate, and aggressive) and 13 individual portfolios. You may choose up to five investment options per account.

The Comptroller of the State of New York and the New York State Higher Education Services Corporation are the Program Administrators and are responsible for implementing and administering the Direct Plan.

To learn more about the program and the tax benefits it offers, visit the official website

Hundreds of scams are going on right now, right at this very moment that you are reading this. Favorite among these scams is the impersonation of the IRS; the favorite victim, YOU – the ordinary citizen. Most of these scams occur right after the filing season, but it does occur before and during, in short, the whole year round. Such scams may appropriate the name, logo or other appurtenances of the IRS or even the U.S. Department of the Treasury, to mislead taxpayers into believing that the scam is legitimate.

However, these scams could be avoided, detected, and identify if you know what to look for. Anyone with a computer could be victimized and the IRS deemed it wise to arm citizens with the following clues:

The IRS and E-mail

Generally, the IRS does not send unsolicited e-mails to taxpayers. Further, the IRS does not discuss tax account information with taxpayers via e-mail or use e-mail to solicit sensitive financial and personal information from taxpayers. The IRS does not request financial account security information, such as PIN numbers, from taxpayers.

Object of Scams

Most scams impersonating the IRS are identity theft schemes. In this type of scam, the scammer poses as a legitimate institution to trick consumers into revealing personal and financial information — such as passwords and Social Security, PIN, bank account and credit card numbers — that can be used to gain access to and steal their bank, credit card or other financial accounts. Attempted identity theft scams that take place via e-mail are known as phishing. Other scams may try to persuade a victim to advance sums of money in the hope of realizing a larger gain. These are known as advance fee scams.

Who Is Targeted

Anyone with a computer, phone or fax machine could receive a scam message or unknowingly visit a phony or misleading Web site. Individuals, businesses, educators, charities and others have been targeted by e-mails that claim to come from the IRS or Treasury Department. Scam e-mails are generally sent out in bulk, based on e-mail addresses (urls), similar to spam.

How an Identity Theft Scam Works

Most of the scams that impersonate the IRS are identity theft scams. Typically, a consumer will receive an e-mail that claims to come from the IRS or Treasury Department. The message will contain an enticing or intimidating subject line, such as tax refund, inherited funds or IRS notice. Usually, the message will state that the recipient needs to provide the IRS with information to obtain the refund or avoid some penalty. The message will instruct the consumer to open an attachment or click on a link in the e-mail. This may lead to an official-looking form to be filled out online or send the taxpayer to a seemingly genuine but bogus IRS Web site. The look-alike site will then contain a phony but genuine-looking online form or interactive application that requires the personal and financial information the scammer can use to commit identity theft.

Alternatively, the clicked link may secretly download malware to the consumer’s computer. Malware is malicious code that can take over the computer’s hard drive, giving the scammer remote access to the computer, or it could look for passwords and other information and send them to the scammer.

Phony Web or Commercial Sites

In many IRS-impersonation scams, the scammer sends the consumer to a phony Web site that mimics the appearance of the genuine IRS Web site, IRS.gov. This allows the scammer to steer victims to phony interactive forms or applications that appear genuine but require the targeted victim to enter personal and financial information that will be used to commit identity theft.

The official Web site for the Internal Revenue Service is IRS.gov, and all IRS.gov Web page addresses begin with http://www.irs.gov/.

In addition to Web sites established by scammers, there are commercial Internet sites that often resemble the authentic IRS site or contain some form of the IRS name in the address but end with a .com, .net, .org or other designation instead of .gov. These sites have no connection to the IRS. Consumers may unknowingly visit these sites when searching the Internet to retrieve tax forms, publications and other information from the IRS.

Frequent or Recent Scams

There are a number of scams that impersonate the IRS. Some of them appear with great frequency, particularly during and right after filing season, and recur annually. Others are new.

• Refund Scam — This is the most frequent IRS-impersonation scam seen by the IRS. In this phishing scam, a bogus e-mail claiming to come from the IRS tells the consumer that he or she is eligible to receive a tax refund for a specified amount. It may use the phrase “last annual calculations of your fiscal activity.” To claim the tax refund, the consumer must open an attachment or click on a link contained in the e-mail to access and complete a claim form. The form requires the entry of personal and financial information. Several variations on the refund scam have claimed to come from the Exempt Organizations area of the IRS or the name and signature of a genuine or made-up IRS executive. In reality, taxpayers do not complete a special form to obtain their federal tax refund — refunds are triggered by the tax return they submitted to the IRS.
• Lottery winnings or cash consignment — These advance fee scam e-mails claim to come from the Treasury Department to notify recipients that they’ll receive millions of dollars in recovered funds or lottery winnings or cash consignment if they provide certain personal information, including phone numbers, via return e-mail. The e-mail may be just the first step in a multi-step scheme, in which the victim is later contacted by telephone or further e-mail and instructed to deposit taxes on the funds or winnings before they can receive any of it. Alternatively, they may be sent a phony check of the funds or winnings and told to deposit it but pay 10 percent in taxes or fees. Thinking that the check must have cleared the bank and is genuine, some people comply. However, the scammers, not the Treasury Department, will get the taxes or fees. In reality, the Treasury Department does not become involved in notification of inheritances or lottery or other winnings.
• Beneficial Owner Form — This fax-based phishing scam, which generally targets foreign nationals, recurs periodically. It’s based on a genuine IRS form, the W-8BEN, Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding. The scammer, though, invents his or her own number and name for the form. The scammer modifies the form to request passport numbers, information that is often used for account security purposes (such as mother’s maiden name) and similar detailed personal and financial information, and states that the recipient may have to pay additional tax if he or she fails to immediately fax back the completed form. In reality, the real W-8BEN is completed by banks, not individuals.

Other Known Scams

The contents of other IRS-impersonation scams vary, but may claim that the recipient will be paid for participating in an online survey or is under investigation or audit. Some scam e-mails have referenced Recovery-related tax provisions, such as Making Work Pay, or solicited for charitable donations to victims of natural disasters. Taxpayers should beware of an e-mail scam that references underreported income and the recipient’s “tax statement,” since clicking on a link or opening an attachment is known to download malware onto the recipient’s computer.

How to Spot a Scam

Many e-mail scams are fairly sophisticated and hard to detect. However, there are signs to watch for, such as an e-mail that:

• Requests detailed or an unusual amount of personal and/or financial information, such as name, SSN, bank or credit card account numbers or security-related information, such as mother’s maiden name, either in the e-mail itself or on another site to which a link in the e-mail sends the recipient.
• Dangles bait to get the recipient to respond to the e-mail, such as mentioning a tax refund or offering to pay the recipient to participate in an IRS survey.
• Threatens a consequence for not responding to the e-mail, such as additional taxes or blocking access to the recipient’s funds.
• Gets the Internal Revenue Service or other federal agency names wrong.
• Uses incorrect grammar or odd phrasing (many of the e-mail scams originate overseas and are written by non-native English speakers).
• Uses a really long address in any link contained in the e-mail message or one that does not start with the actual IRS Web site address (http://www.irs.gov). The actual link’s address, or url, is revealed by moving the mouse over the link included in the text of the e-mail.

What to Do

Taxpayers who receive a suspicious e-mail claiming to come from the IRS should take the following steps:

• Avoid opening any attachments to the e-mail, in case they contain malicious code that will infect your computer.
• Avoid clicking on any links, for the same reason. Alternatively, the links may connect to a phony IRS Web site that appears authentic and then prompts for personal identifiers, bank or credit card account numbers or PINs.
• Visit the IRS Web site, www.irs.gov, to use the “Where’s My Refund?” interactive tool to determine if they are really getting a refund, rather than responding to the e-mail message.
• Forward the suspicious e-mail or url address to the IRS mailbox phishing@irs.gov, and then delete the e-mail from their inbox.

Consumers who believe they are or may be victims of identity theft or other scams may visit the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Web site for identity theft, www.OnGuardOnline.gov, for guidance in what to do. The IRS is one of the sponsors of this site.

More information on IRS-impersonation scams, identity theft and suspicious e-mail is available on IRS.gov.