Ok, hypothetical question.  This situation has not happend to me or anyone I know.  I was just thinking about if it did happen it would be a good way to catch criminals.\n\nOk, lets say a guy makes say $90,000 from an illgal enterprise in a year, and only reports say $10,000 that he claims he made from say, selling items on ebay to the IRS, but he is living in an expensive apartment that costs $2000 a month.  So he reported some, but not enough to cover his lifestyle.  Do landlords have to give some kind of thing that says who is renting apartments and how much they cost?  And, if so is it likely (has it happend before) for the government to find out that he doesn't make enough money to cover her lifestyle, and they would bust her?  Do you know of any ways to easily claim a legal source for you money that cant be checked, or disproven?
199758
I believe the government is allowed to access information from the landlord, and the person's bank account in this instance. There are no legal ways to evade tax. If you invest the money, you may be able to minimise your tax, but as I am from Australia and our tax laws are different to yours, I can't say for certain. \n\nThe American tax laws take up 1.2 million pages, so I'm sure they have covered everything.
408342
I keep telling ya'll...white collar crime is very difficult to prove, extremely expensive to investigate, and only rises to mass attention IF some innocent third party just happens to "notice" the fraud and then this innocent person sticks his neck out to warn law enforcement. This person must not be an ex-wife, ex-employee, or have any particular motive they can pin on him. The innocent party must also be a cross between Mother Theresa and Sheriff Taylor to be believed. THEN we have to get past all the sacred laws re: invasion of privacy to even think of looking at someone's computer or their bank account records. God forbid we use common sense and do like Bush said "Follow the money". Yep, THAT would be unconstitutional.
435187
Something similiar happened to me many, many years ago. I suggest that you bring a criminal action against the firm and/or your boss for "conversion" -- misappropriation of your property. (In New York City, where I was in 1969 or thereabouts, it is easy to bring a misdemeanor criminal complaint; and of course it's free.) \n\n(My landlady used her husband as her lawyer, and he went ballistic during pre-trial depositions, made a fool of himself on the record and wrecked his case. I did some research at the time, and found that this woman had even sued diplomats with immunity. Or tried to. So I brought the criminal case because she hadn't let me take my stuff -- a refrigerator -- out of the apartment. Of course she relented after I did that. She's dead now, of course.)\n \nYou will thus have ammunition against them.\n\nWhen it's all over, go to Small Claims Court and bring a civil case for the missing stuff. \n\nIf you have the time for this, you can make a nuisance of yourself, and make them pay for their nastiness.
415773
I work for a real estate agent. Situation like this doesn't happen very offen. I'm surprised that happened to you. I doubt it will happen agin!
593796
NO.  But check the laws in your state or City to make sure.  If you want, you could call a lawyer, just ask them if you have a case, and see what they say.  It won't cost you a dime.  If the lawyer thinks you have a case, then he'll take it and sue for you.  You probably won't ever even have to go to court.  It'll be free for you because the lawyer will just keep a portion of the winnings as his fee.  That's why lawyers won't take cases that they can't win.  Usually a lawyer keeps 20-33% as their legal fees.  But like I said, if you don't win your case, you get nothing, and he gets nothing.  Either way, suing your landlord won't cost you a dime and it probably won't cost you any time or effort either.  Call or visit a lawyer to find out if you have a case.\n\nBy the way, not all lawyers do these kinds of cases, so I'd just pick up the phone book and call a few, explain to whoever answers the phone that it is a case where you wonder if you can sue your landlord for an illegal lease.  They'll tell you if they handle those kinds of cases or not over the phone.  They'll usually tell you what percentage they keep for fees over the phone as well.  I sure hope this helps you out!\n\nOh.. one more thing... IF you ever want to win anything in court, or if you are even planning on suing, DON'T tell anyone (except your lawyer) that you KNEW it was illegal ahead of time.  If the court finds out you knowingly entered an illegal contract, you won't have a leg to stand on.
407162
Yes, but it might be difficult to prove. It is called...i think slander or public defaming or something like that. Despite this, proof of the action(s) might be very difficult to prove, and the cost of the suit might not be reasonable.
305945
They usually get caught eventually. You have to remeber that the IRS in in charge of 6 million tax forms. People can definitely slip through the cracks, but they tend to get caught eventually.
399478
It doesn't sound like the owner should have. But you don't know exactly what was in the lease either. Those leases can have all kinds of loopholes in them. Then again, the owner might have thought no one would ask for it back.
81571
First, I sure get tired of folks responding to questions as if they were text messaging you; I wonder if they can properly spell anything. Second, each state has slightly different laws regarding personal property and tenancy. I also have a feeling you left a few details out; the owner of the property where your "house" or trailer was/is sitting on, is a rented space to you (Lessee) owned by the Lessor.  You must have recieved multiple notices regarding the issue of your back lot rent, and THEN it went to Small Claims Court.  The Judge in Small Claims must have had your "paid up" receipts of record, (if you bothered to show up)or not-if not, the Lessor (owner of the property) would have won the small claims case, then she/he (Lesor)would have had an additional request, through another court, at another date later, to request seizure of your property to pay the back owed bills.***** They can only do this if they have proved you had received Notices of these actions.**** The only way they could have had the utilities turned off is if they ended up owning YOUR property in this very legal way.  Seek free legal help from your community legal program; there is pro bono in just about every city in the USA.
529026
Wether or not the cosigner is sued should be irrelevant.  At the very least youwill have on your credit history that you burned your landlord for that much money.  That is a negative reference you don't need no matter how you slice it.\n   Ever hear of the law of diminishing returns?  The money you save will be nothing compared to how hard you make your own life, and possinly that of your co-signatory, in some deep deep doo-doo.  Pay the man, and good luck with moving.
72773
A recorded admission from them would help as evidence whether they tell you or someone else.  Drunk people talk too much.  Maybe you could follow them to a bar.  Also, $70,00 is a lot.  An IRS audit might do them in as they would have to explain purchases.
54830
You should always be able to call your local police department. If it is something out of their comfort zone and/or authority, they'll be able to refer you elsewhere. Unless you've actually incurred monetary damages (loss of income, significant fees to get things back to normal, etc.), my instinct is that there will be little that can actually be done. If you have an attorney and if you know who this person really is (not just a screen name or some such), you could ask your attorney to write a letter to this individual. Again, legally speaking, there may not be much that can be done, but a letter from an attorney will likely scare the living crap out of this person. Something else you may want to do is see if there is an InfraGard chapter in your area. They will likely have resources and suggestions for you, as well. It may even be worth checking into reporting the incident to CERT/CC.
659160
If the thieves intend to use the data for fraud, they will most likely not start doing so until the fraud alerts that most of us have filed expire, three months from now.\n\nSince the credit-reporting companies are required to provide you with one free credit report a year, if you request it, and there are three companies like this, you could stagger your requests to them so that you get a report from a different company once every four months.\n\nI think that's a pretty big hassle, though. If organizations can't be more reasonable about how they collect and store information about us, they could at least send us copies of the information they're collecting automatically.
82747
Thank you! I have been trying to make this same point! They cannot apply for tax returns so they lose all that money! Where do most of the people on this website get their info from?
645322
This sounds uncomfortably like money laundering, which is taking money earned by crime, and moving it into other accounts and investments in order to hide the monetary evidence of drug deals, corruption, bribery, etc.\n\nBefore giving them any real information (including your home e-mail address), try to discern what precisely they want you to do.  Have them be clear on the source of the money, and why you are needed to process that money.
110593
You might make an easier case (if an audit happens) if they put it on the market and it didn't sell for a while then they agreed to sell it to you for more than anyone else would pay.\n\nI don' think there is a limit, just some little rule that will "red flag" it for the IRS. Call a CPA anonymously and ask a quick question. They will most likely answer for free.
14418
Methinks people watch too much TV sometimes.\n\nBut anyway, if you're really packing the gear you say you are, those people need to be prosecuted and put in prison.  If the narcs work for the city or the county, go to the state.  If they work for the state, go to the feds.  Come to think of it, maybe go to the feds no matter who the dirty folks work for...seems to me, chances are pretty good the feds will have jurisdiction if the dirty cops are only half as dirty as they could be. \n\nGo to the media if you want.  But if you do, and if the media thinks someone else will "scoop" them on the story, they will run with the story and blow the whole thing wide open, as they like to say.  Of course, the media doesn't give a damn about the successful prosecution of these cops, only their ratings...releasing the information prior to a successful and thorough investigation could very well jeopardize the ability of the investigators to put these dirty cops in prison.\n\nMailing something to yourself is silly...it only "proves" the envelope was mailed to you on a certain date, not the contents.  Surely in this day and age we'd all agree that envelopes can be opened and closed at will, with very little effort.\n\nOn the other hand, giving your documentation to an attorney might be useful.  And having an attorney would likely be a wonderful idea, given the nature of the allegations you're pushing here.  \n\nPersonally, I hope you're some kook who doesn't know what they're talking about and whose documented proof consists of a napkin with some cryptic drawings on it.  However, I'm willing to believe you could be right and if you are, I wish you the best of luck in whatever course you choose to take.  The important thing here would be to remove those people from office, if they really are doing what you're saying.  Please do keep an open mind, though...one person's idea of an "illegal cover-up" is another person's idiotic police report that should have been written better.\n\n2/3/06: Okay, this is some pretty serious stuff you're alleging here.  I will renew the part of my answer that is suggesting you contact an attorney and work through them.  I can't suggest a way to find an attorney that would be willing to work with you on this particular issue because I don't how you'd find them...maybe the Bar Association in your state.\n\nI'll also offer to discuss this further with you in email by writing to me at my user name at yahoo.com...though I'm not sure you should.  If you do, we'd need to set some ground rules for our discussions so don't write and give me *any* information other than where I can write you back at first.  I'd like to help you get pointed in the right direction because if only half of this is true, these people are disgracing my profession and need to be stopped.  \n\nI'm suggesting the attorney.  I'm not suggesting you contact me, but I am willing to talk to you if you want to write.