By Justin Lavelle - BeenVerified 
Tax season is upon us, and people are rushing to pull together their important documents and other information in preparation to file their taxes by the April deadline. Due to the amount of tax preparation being moved online through DIY software, tax scams are ever-evolving. The reason they are so popular is that they are so profitable. Between October 2013 and August 2015, the IRS logged more than $20 million in losses just from one type of scam.
Learn the Facts so You Don't Get Scammed This Tax Season:
• IRS Phone Scams - If you haven't already been attacked by one of these prevalent scams, consider yourself lucky. While IRS phone scams are a year-round threat, they amp up through deadline day and beyond. The key to avoiding these scams is to know that the IRS does not make threatening phone calls, nor do they request wire transfers over the phone. If someone calls saying they are from the IRS, have the confidence to hang up the phone, and don't call back if they leave a voicemail.
• Online Tax Software Phishing Emails - A newer emerging tax season threat executed by con artists sends phishing emails with official-looking logos from mainstream online tax providers. These con artists are looking for you to part with your Social Security number and other key details or trying to infect your computer with malware. Your safest bet is to not open any emails or click on any links that you're not 100 percent sure about.
• Fake Tax Refund ID Theft Scams - Beware! Identity thieves will steal Social Security numbers to file fraudulent tax returns and get a large tax refund early in the season. Guard your Social Security number and online identity fiercely. Paperless e-filing and online tax software has made it easier for this type of scam to proliferate. Watch closely for your W2's in the mail. If they're not delivered in a timely manner, find out where they went and if they were filed falsely.
• An Invitation to High-Priced Seminars - A long-running tax-season scam involves invitations to seminars, typically costing upward of $1,000, where attendees are given bullet-proof strategies for lessening their tax bills or avoiding certain types of taxes altogether. Unfortunately, most of these strategies are either invalid or outdated, and are often completely useless when dealing with the IRS. When participants figure it out, the con artists have vanished.
• Tax Return Preparer Fraud - Unfortunately there is an unsavory bunch of people acting as tax-return preparers falsely preparing your taxes. Most tax professionals provide honest, high-quality service, but there are some dishonest preparers who perpetrate refund fraud, identity theft and other scams. Return preparers are a vital part of the U.S. tax system, with about 60 percent of taxpayers using tax professionals to prepare their returns. To find a trustworthy tax preparer, check with the Better Business Bureau, use a well-known and respected company, or get a referral from a friend or co-worker.
Justin Lavelle is the Communications Director for BeenVerified.com, whose mission is to help people discover, understand, and use public data in their everyday lives. With millions of app downloads and millions of monthly visitors, BeenVerified is a leading source of online background checks and contact information. BeenVerified allows individuals to find more information about people, phone numbers, email addresses, and property records.
By Justin Lavelle - BeenVerified ​
​https://www.svatampabay.com/

Tax season is upon us, and people are rushing to pull together their important documents and other information in preparation to file their taxes by the April deadline. Due to the amount of tax preparation being moved online through DIY software, tax scams are ever-evolving. The reason they are so popular is that they are so profitable. Between October 2013 and August 2015, the IRS logged more than $20 million in losses just from one type of scam.
Learn the Facts so You Don't Get Scammed This Tax Season:
• IRS Phone Scams - If you haven't already been attacked by one of these prevalent scams, consider yourself lucky. While IRS phone scams are a year-round threat, they amp up through deadline day and beyond. The key to avoiding these scams is to know that the IRS does not make threatening phone calls, nor do they request wire transfers over the phone. If someone calls saying they are from the IRS, have the confidence to hang up the phone, and don't call back if they leave a voicemail.
• Online Tax Software Phishing Emails - A newer emerging tax season threat executed by con artists sends phishing emails with official-looking logos from mainstream online tax providers. These con artists are looking for you to part with your Social Security number and other key details or trying to infect your computer with malware. Your safest bet is to not open any emails or click on any links that you're not 100 percent sure about.
• Fake Tax Refund ID Theft Scams - Beware! Identity thieves will steal Social Security numbers to file fraudulent tax returns and get a large tax refund early in the season. Guard your Social Security number and online identity fiercely. Paperless e-filing and online tax software has made it easier for this type of scam to proliferate. Watch closely for your W2's in the mail. If they're not delivered in a timely manner, find out where they went and if they were filed falsely.
• An Invitation to High-Priced Seminars - A long-running tax-season scam involves invitations to seminars, typically costing upward of $1,000, where attendees are given bullet-proof strategies for lessening their tax bills or avoiding certain types of taxes altogether. Unfortunately, most of these strategies are either invalid or outdated, and are often completely useless when dealing with the IRS. When participants figure it out, the con artists have vanished.
• Tax Return Preparer Fraud - Unfortunately there is an unsavory bunch of people acting as tax-return preparers falsely preparing your taxes. Most tax professionals provide honest, high-quality service, but there are some dishonest preparers who perpetrate refund fraud, identity theft and other scams. Return preparers are a vital part of the U.S. tax system, with about 60 percent of taxpayers using tax professionals to prepare their returns. To find a trustworthy tax preparer, check with the Better Business Bureau, use a well-known and respected company, or get a referral from a friend or co-worker.
Justin Lavelle is the Communications Director for BeenVerified.com, whose mission is to help people discover, understand, and use public data in their everyday lives. With millions of app downloads and millions of monthly visitors, BeenVerified is a leading source of online background checks and contact information. BeenVerified allows individuals to find more information about people, phone numbers, email addresses, and property records.
https://www.svatampabay.com/
By Justin Lavelle - BeenVerified
https://www.svatampabay.com/story/2021/04/01/featured/tips-to-avoid-the-most-common-tax-scams/176.html​

If you are a senior citizen or a person with disabilities under Florida's Medicaid Managed Care program, there is good news if you want to receive that care at home.
Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) is creating new rules that raise the standard of home-care services under its Long-Term Care Waiver Program, allowing seniors and those with disabilities to be among their loved ones and avoid skilled nursing facilities.
A recent lawsuit settlement requires Florida's Medicaid Long-Term Managed Care companies "to provide an array of home and community-based services that enable enrollees to live in the community and to avoid institutionalization."
For example, Adriana Parrales, a young woman with a rare genetic disorder, is now free from constant worry that she would end up in a facility. The lawsuit settlement affects more than 45,000 Floridians like her, who will now have significantly more protections in place to ensure that their care needs are adequately met at home. Parrales and four other citizens sued AHCA in August 2015, contending that the system placed them at risk of being institutionalized because it was not providing adequate standards or over-sight for home care.
Under the settlement, AHCA has also agreed to changes in their contract with managed care, trainings and consumer education, and better program monitoring.
When managed care took over the program, Parrales experienced wildly varying assessments of her needs and suffered a reduction of more than half of her services. After a hospitalization that left her on a ventilator, she was discharged home without either private duty nursing or respiratory therapy, leaving her mother to provide around-the-clock skilled care.
Josephine Hollister, another plaintiff, requested a transfer from a nursing facility to her own home, but was denied the coverage prescribed for her discharge. Determined to live in her own home, she exhausted her own small income and had to rely on voluntary help from her guardian to get the services she needed.
The plaintiffs contended that the managed-care organizations ignored critical issues such as need for supervision, caregiver availability, and access to community services.
My law firm filed the lawsuit along with Disability Rights Florida and Southern Legal Counsel. The Long-Term Care Waiver Program is supposed to substitute for nursing-home care, allowing people to remain in their own homes or in less restrictive community settings. When care needs are not met, caregivers are pushed to the extreme, and enrollees are not safe or just end up going into nursing homes, like it or not.
"The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination based on disability, which includes being forced into unnecessarily restrictive settings to receive care," said Amanda E. Heystek, Esq., Disability Rights Florida. "Ms. Hollister wanted to live at home, and just needed the right amount of care in order to safely do so."
Disability Rights Florida is the state's designated protection and advocacy system for persons with disabilities, and Southern Legal Counsel is a statewide nonprofit public interest law firm funded by The Florida Bar Foundation.
Other organizations, such as the Academy of Florida Elder Law Attorneys, are also keeping a watchful eye on the Medicaid Managed Care program, monitoring the quality of care for senior citizens and those with disabilities.
The impact of the lawsuit is already being felt. Parrales' managed care company is now providing her with nursing care and appropriate therapies. Hollister, who died recently, was able to get the services she needed to stay in her home with her beloved dog by her side.
Nancy Wright is a sole practitioner in Gainesville, Fla. focusing on Medicaid home- and community-based services for adults and children with disabilities and the elderly. Nancy has been a member of the Florida Bar since 1980 after graduating with high honors from Florida State University College of Law.
​https://www.svatampabay.com/