There are many ways to change a bad system.  Most people recognize that following the money and going after the money is the most effective way to convince a group to change their ways.  Your average person typically does not have the financial means to go after a large corporation or a celebrity worth millions of dollars.  However, depending on the type of illegal activity, the IRS can level that playing field and might offer you a reward based on the percentage they seize.

The IRS has issued a bulletin to help identify just how much might be awarded to a person if they can provide evidence that helps the IRS win a tax battle against a suspect.  The bulletin is titled Claims Submitted to the IRS Whistleblower Office Under Section 7623, and they even have an official form for you to use to submit your claim, Its called Form 211 (see PDF) and I have used it myself many times in the past.

Update – Just for the record, I used this to turn in people working for organized crime in China where they were producing large quantities of consumer electronics that were being used to create IED’s in Iraq.  Weirdly, I’ve gotten several emails from people that think that turning in people that don’t pay their fair share of taxes (like the chinese mafia or dog fighting ring leaders) is a bad thing.
Just so those of you that think this is a bad thing understand, if you want to support the Chinese mafia or dog fighters, I’d just as soon not have you subscribe anyway.  It will actually make me feel better if you unsubscribe.    Income tax evaders and money launderers suck!

On a similar note, for those of you that think ‘we’ should do something more important with our time, consider that this was something very important with my time that I am involved with in addition to this campaign.

Here’s how it works:

1. Let’s say that you have information about how much money someone received illegally, possibly through illegal gambling for example, or you know how much money someone spent on illegal gambling activities that they wrote off as a different type of expense,
2. You could share that information with the IRS providing the evidence that you have using Form 211
3. If the total back taxes, plus penalties and interest (and the IRS charges massive penalties and interest so this can add up quickly) totals up over $2,000,000
4. You may be eligible for a reward of up to 10%.
5. If the amount is less than $2 million the percentage amount of the award is pretty much at the discretion of the IRS
6. But more importantly, the IRS now has the information to go after a person that has essentially cheated on their taxes, cheated other taxpayers and with your information they can get that lost tax money back
7. They might even be able to prosecute the tax cheat for income tax evasion or money laundering.

This type of tactic has been used for decades by prosecutors, who have successfully bankrupted and often times put in jail people including Al Capone to the KKK to organized criminals.

Protesters are just starting to realize that the information and facts they gain through their own research and investigation and sometimes freedom of information act evidence, that they can then do some of the analysis on that information in total and tip off the IRS.

How the IRS can help remove Violent Felons from the NFL

Many people that engage in illegal activities of a violent nature that are also celebrities often times spend a lot of money to cover up their crimes.  This is a crime also, but the spending of the money, leaves a trail, lets call it smoke.

If you can find bread crumbs from that trail, you can start to put together the big picture.  From the smoke trail, you might be able to determine the size of the fire, even if you can figure out exactly what type of fire it is.  Depending on how that money was spent, who was paid and more importantly how it was or more often WAS NOT reported to the IRS can be used by the IRS to prosecute for unpaid taxes.

In the NFL, a number of high profile athletes have gotten into a significant amount of serious trouble related to violence.  If they participated in a cover up, if their team participated in a cover up, if the NFL participated in a cover up or if the Union participated in a cover up for or with that athlete, the money trail can be the key to unlocking the crime, but more importantly bringing down the corrupt members of the organization.

We can gather some of that information, we can provide it to the IRS through Form 211, and we can help the IRS take action.  Essentially, this can make it too expensive and difficult for these groups to protect criminal actions and not pay their taxes.  It can also put them in jail.  Plus, this can open the door on investigations that have grown cold due to lack of cooperation or an unwillingness to proceed on the part of prosecutors or others because they have been bribed by members of the group.

Each tax prosecution, each claim collected by the IRS adds more evidence to the case for the NFL to denounce violent criminals and step aside from protecting violent criminals.  The legal cost, the financial liability, the liability on the brand of the NFL and its teams, would be so high that they would have to take actions to end their support of violent criminals and set stiff penalties for members of the NFL and its teams, stating that if someone commits a violent crime, they are out for life.

Using Tax Prosecutions to Remove Current Violent Felons in the NFL

This tactic could even be used for existing violent felons in the NFL.  In many of the high profile cases of people that have committed violent crimes in the NFL, there were a number of people involved, often times both an entourage as well as possibly people from the team that knew of the crimes or activities.

These people all have information about what happened.  Some of them may have even suffered financially due to the crimes, or might be more likely to share information after the fact about the incident.  Other criminals that had dealings with criminals in the NFL might also be willing to share information about how much money they might have lost gambling with NFL criminals for example.  Identifying this money, the amount of this money, whether it was reported correctly or not, could all be very useful for the IRS in making a case against tax cheats who also happen to be violent felons.

Related Links on Helping IRS Go After NFL Felons

• Might the IRS Get Involved in Vick Case?
• Michael Vick Can Not Escape The IRS in Prison
• IRS alleges retired Hall of Fame Steeler Mel Blount owes more than $631K in back taxes
• If you were Michael Vick’s financial adviser

Just wanted to quickly share this protest sign from a fairly balanced article on the LA Times Blog, more of an article in pictures, from Michael Vick’s water testing re-entry into the NFL preseason yesterday.

The New York Times didn’t have a half bad article either.  In general most main stream journalists whether they cover sports or not, seem to be embracing the opportunity to write the come back story of Michael Vick, regardless of how morally bankrupt it is to paint that story through rose colored glasses.  In fairness, we are in a recession, and the newspapers and reporters are struggling to keep their business and jobs.  They and their editors probably see more financial legs in a story week after week where Michael Vick gets a mention as opposed to a story where Michael Vick goes out into the world and does something more worth while. 

They were quick to help knock him down in 2007, not because what he did was terribly detestable and very sick, but because it made good business for 24 hours news coverage during the cycles at the time.  These days there is no news cycle about a man that gets out of prison, but there’s lots of news cycles to be spun and sold about the most notorious animal abuser in the country getting out of prison, rejoining the national felons league and picking up a fat contract all in the course of a summer.

Its been a while since we covered this last, but for some of you that are new to the debate, or have forgotten some of the details, or just need a refresher here’s a link to the actual document that Michael Vick agreed to as facts in his plea agreement.

http://news.findlaw.com/wp/docs/sports/usvick82407sof.html

As he did plea, much of the witness testimony provided in the indictment was not used in a trial. That witness testimony was extremely negative and in many ways much uglier than the perfected statements that Michael Vick provided in the Statement of Facts.

Even with that legal wrangling, we feel that the Statement of Facts provided by Michael Vick are enough on their own to merit his permanent suspension from the NFL under the CBA.