The Hill reports that IRS Commissioner Steven Miller was present at a congressional hearing today where Sen. Chuck Grassley grilled the commissioner on the agency’s email policy. Miller said that his agency obtains a search warrant before requesting emails, and even went further by saying that the agency never requests emails during civil investigations.

Miller also said that his agency follows the ruling set in United States v. Warshak, a Sixth Circuit Court decision that said the government must obtain a warrant before requesting emails from a service provider. The decision is only binding in the Sixth Circuit, but the IRS says it applies the ruling to operations nationwide.

What’s interesting here is that the documents obtained by the ACLU suggests the IRS does the exact opposite. The documents never explicitly state that the IRS snooped through emails without a warrant, but everything points to this conclusion. Even when taking United States v. Warshak into account, the IRS reportedly said that it only needed to worry about a warrant in the Sixth Circuit.

Of course, senators brought up this disparity during the hearing. Miller said that his agency will work on clarifying its procedures, but still insisted that it obtained a warrant when snooping through emails. Unfortunately, Miller said that he couldn’t say the same thing for other online communications like Facebook messages, but that’s only because he didn’t know the agency’s specific warrant requirements for these new types of communications.

Today’s hearing precedes the Senate Judiciary Committee’s planned markup of the decades old ECPA law on Thursday. Currently, the ECPA lets law enforcement obtain emails with only a subpoena if the email in question is over 180 days old. The bill going before Committee on Thursday will require law enforcement to obtain a warrant when obtaining emails and other online communications regardless of its age.

The Hill reports that Rep. Charles Boustany, chairman of the Ways and Means subcommittee on Oversight, sent a letter to the IRS asking the agency to explain how it obtains emails, and when it thinks it can obtain said emails without a warrant. Boustany asks that the IRS provide the following information by April 26:

The IRS hasn’t indicated whether or not it intends to answer the congressman’s questions, but it did issue this statement:

“Our job is to administer the nation’s tax laws, and we do so in a way that follows the law and treats taxpayers with respect. Contrary to some suggestions, the IRS does not use emails to target taxpayers. Any suggestion to the contrary is wrong.”

It’s important to note that the documents obtained by the ACLU never outright said the IRS obtained emails without a warrant. The agency only said it was possible while saying that Internet users “do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.” Of course, such statements don’t exactly inspire confidence, and people want to know if the IRS ever did take advantage of the ECPA to obtain emails without a warrant.

Even if the IRS did access emails without a warrant, it may not be able to do so much longer. Both the House and the Senate are working on laws that would update the ECPA to require a warrant when government agencies wish to access emails.

In a Freedom of Information Act request, the ACLU obtained a number of IRS documents that explain the agency’s rules in regards to obtaining digital information. Much like other law enforcement agencies, the IRS operates under the ECPA, a decades-old law that allows government agencies to obtain emails without a warrant if said email has been opened or is more than 180 days old.

So far, all of this is old news. What’s the IRS doing that’s so different from any other agency? In the official IRS search warrant handbook from 2009, the agency’s guideline explicitly states that the Fourth Amendment doesn’t apply to online communications. Here’s the relevant portion of the handbook:

“…the Fourth Amendment does not protect communications held in electronic storage, such as email messages stored on a server, because internet users do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in such communications.”

To make matters worse, the IRS Office of Chief Counsel reiterated this line of thinking a year later when they said that the Fourth Amendment does not “protect emails stored on server.” The ACLU points to other documents that imply the IRS is obtaining emails left and right without a warrant all thanks to the ECPA’s outdated definitions.

It’s no surprise to see the IRS taking advantage of the Fourth Amendment loophole in the ECPA. The surprising part is just how frank the agency is about its data collecting methods. It’s also depressing to see that the agency feels that American citizens “do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy” on the Internet.

Of course, all of that should have changed in 2010 with the United States v. Warshak, a Sixth Circuit Appeals Court ruling that found law enforcement had violated a man’s Fourth Amendment rights when they obtained his emails without a search warrant. Unfortunately, the IRS feels that it would only need to consider obtaining a warrant when dealing with cases in the sixth circuit. It’s still open season for warrantless email collection everywhere else.

It’s a little distressing to find that the IRS holds Americans’ Fourth Amendment protections in such low regard, but it’s only foolish at this point to think any government agency actually cares about the Fourth Amendment in regards to online communications. We can only hope that Congress passes one of the many bills it’s proposing this year to reform the ECPA.

The IRS had originally planned to open electronic tax filing on January 22. The delay is due to changes in tax law passed by congress on New Year’s Day. The American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) was the compromise bill that was the result of the “fiscal cliff” standoff between the president and house Republicans.

The IRS is now updating forms and “completing programming and testing of its processing systems.” The updates should, the IRS states, allow the “vast majority” of Americans to file their tax returns beginning January 30. For those few who need more obscure forms for things such as residential energy credit claims, depreciation of property, or general business credits, further form updating and processing systems changes should allow them to file in late February or early March.

“We have worked hard to open tax season as soon as possible,” said Steven T. Miller, acting commissioner of the IRS. “This date ensures we have the time we need to update and test our processing systems.”

The IRS stated that not even paper tax returns will be processed before January 30, and that taxpayers receive their refunds more quickly when filing electronically anyway. Over 80% of taxpayers in the U.S. filed electronically in 2012.

“The best option for taxpayers is to file electronically,” said Miller.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has sent out a warning to residents in New Jersey about a brand new email phishing scam that seems to be targeting veterans. The emails in question appear to come from the Defense Finance and Accounting Services, and even has a .mil email address, an IRS spokeswoman said.

The message tries to get veterans who receive disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs to send them personal information to obtain more money from the IRS. Since most Veterans receiving benefits are on a fixed income, it was really important for the IRS to speak up as fast as a giant government bureaucracy can.

“The information on these documents is then used by the scammers to commit identity theft,” IRS spokeswoman Dianne Besunder said in a statement. “Typically, identity thieves use someone’s personal data to empty the victim’s financial accounts, run up charges on the victim’s existing credit cards or apply for new loans, credit cards, services or benefits in the victim’s name.”

As a reminder for all, the IRS does not send unsolicited emails or ask for personal and financial information for accounts. Just think of it this way, the IRS is out to collect taxes, do you really think that they are going to inform you that you can pay less or get more back? No chance of that happening!

Apparently we were not the only ones following Saverin’s story, Senator Charles Schumer is calling Saverin’s plan to renounce his citizenship a “scam” and he’s taking action to make sure this isn’t a strategy others can pursue in the future. Essentially the legislation he’s crafting would impose a 30% capital gains tax on any citizen who decides to renounce and keep their US investments.

The current exit tax is similar in the way that it assumes a fee based on actually selling the investments. I believe 30% would be a considerable increase, but not completely different than what Eduardo is required to pay now. One clear difference is that Saverin could indefinitely delay paying the exit tax as it is, until he actually does sell the stock, as the current exit tax allows.

Introduced at a news conference this mourning, the “Expatriation Prevention by Abolishing Tax-Related Incentives for Offshore Tenancy” Act would discourage investors from renouncing citizenship in order to evade high US taxes. A main component of the act prohibits those who renounce from ever entering the United States again.

So it looks like things are heating up for Eduardo as lawmakers begin to take notice of his exit from the United States. Currently living in Singapore, Saverin amassed his education and his wealth in the US after attending Harvard. He was born in Brazil and has had US citizenship since 1998. He is estimated to own approximately 4% of Facebook, which will be worth a hefty fortune after tomorrows much anticipated public offering.

At some point going public became an inevitability and for those who saw it coming, they have been doing everything they can to reduce the amount of money the the US government will take from them. Eduardo Saverin, a co-founder of Facebook, is one of those stakeholders, and he currently owns 4% of the company.

You might remember Saverin was one of the members of the Facebook team who turned around and sued Zuckerberg after he was forced out of the loop at the company. Apparently he contributed a great deal to the financial workings that allowed the site to launch and ultimately become a success. Long story short, he won some undisclosed settlement, which he probably deserved.

Back to the tax thing. The Brazilian-born Saverin became a US citizen in 1998 after living in the country for over five years. According to Bloomberg, He joined an internal Revenue Service list of people who chose to denounce their US citizenship as of Aril 30th.

Tom Goodman, a spokesman for Saverin, told Bloomberg, “Eduardo recently found it more practical to become a resident of Singapore since he plans to live there for an indefinite period of time,”. With the much lower capital gains taxes in Singapore it makes sense from a financial point of view. However, it’s bound to raise eyebrows since Saverin gained his Harvard education and his immense wealth in the United States.

Almost a quarter of Americans file their taxes within two weeks of the April 15th filing deadline, and the subconscious stress may be playing a role in many of the accidents.

William Helton, a psychologist at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, commented on possible causes for the accidents:

“It might not even be that you’re anxious,”

“you’re thinking about the nitty-gritty: ‘Line 27, did I put the right number in?’ ”

Dr. Donald Redelmeier of the University of Toronto’s Institute of Health Policy and Management also lends his opinion:

“Just because you’ve filed early doesn’t mean this is not going to affect you,”

“If you’re on the road for 20 to 25 minutes, it brings you into contact with 100 other drivers, any one of which could change your life forever.”

“We are not advocating an abolition of taxes,”

“That does not make the problem go away.”

Russ Rader, a representative for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, claims having more motorists on roads and drivers taking different routes from their normal daily commutes might make April 15th a riskier day to be on the highways. Supposedly the death toll on tax days is only 6% higher, but that equates to 13 extra deaths and approximately $40 million in annual losses.

This year the tax deadline has been extended to April 17th so that gives taxpayers an extra two days. April 15th is a Sunday so we’ll see how these two changes alter the statistics for 2012. Happy filing, be careful out there on the roads. Perhaps tax day should become a national holiday where everything is closed except tax accounting firms and the IRS….In the interest of safety.

What’s new this year is the IRS is now on Twitter! I know you’re excited about this, I sure am. You can find them at twitter.com/IRSnews. On there you’ll find all kinds of tax related information including tips on how to use e-file, apply for a tax extension, and even how to track down your refund if it hasn’t yet arrived.

Figuring your taxes can be a stressful project, so for do-it-yourselfers this could be a valuable tool. I went on my Twitter account to follow the IRS just to see what appeared when I did.

Here’s some of what I found:

But, today is Monday. The Super Bowl is over. The work week is beginning. And, we’ve all got holiday bills, broken-down cars, and other difficulties to take care of. A Federal tax refund check would be pretty handy right now.

What if your employer has not sent your W-2? What do you do?

What if they sent it, but to the wrong address?

How long do you wait before doing anything at all? When do you call the IRS? And where do you call?

Here are a few quick answers that I hope can at least give you an idea about where to start. I’ve taken these answers straight from the horse’s mouth at IRS.gov. I highly suggest you make that site your first stop for any questions about filing, any forms, etc. It is actually very well-laid-out and helpful. And, it beats trying to call the IRS hotline by a long shot, especially this time of year.

Please note the February 14 date in Step 2 below. Before that date, only call the IRS if you know that your employer is not going to have your W-2s sent. Before that date, the IRS will simply tell you to wait.

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Employers have until January 31, 2011 to send you a 2010 Form W-2 earnings statement.
If you haven’t received your W-2, follow these four steps:

1. Contact your employer If you have not received your W-2, contact your employer to inquire if and when the W-2 was mailed. If it was mailed, it may have been returned to the employer because of an incorrect or incomplete address. After contacting the employer, allow a reasonable amount of time for them to resend or to issue the W-2.

2. Contact the IRS If you do not receive your W-2 by February 14th, contact the IRS for assistance at 800-829-1040. When you call, you must provide your name, address, city and state, including zip code, Social Security number, phone number and have the following information:
• Employer’s name, address, city and state, including zip code and phone number
• Dates of employment
• An estimate of the wages you earned, the federal income tax withheld, and when you worked for that employer during 2010. The estimate should be based on year-to-date information from your final pay stub or leave-and-earnings statement, if possible.

3. File your return You still must file your tax return or request an extension to file April 18, 2011, even if you do not receive your Form W-2. If you have not received your Form W-2 by the due date, and have completed steps 1 and 2, you may use Form 4852, Substitute for Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement. Attach Form 4852 to the return, estimating income and withholding taxes as accurately as possible. There may be a delay in any refund due while the information is verified.

4. File a Form 1040X On occasion, you may receive your missing W-2 after you filed your return using Form 4852, and the information may be different from what you reported on your return. If this happens, you must amend your return by filing a Form 1040X, Amended U.S. Individual Income Tax Return.

Form 4852, Form 1040X, and instructions are available at http://www.irs.gov or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).