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.

To learn more about legal tax savings, pickup a copy of my free CD,

Tax Secrets of The Rich, at www.taxsavingconcepts.com