Accountability

After an exhaustive investigation into college and universities' compliance with regulations governing nonprofit entities, the IRS has released its final report, showing that many institutions of higher learning had done things such as reporting certain losses as connected to unrelated business activities when they were not, making errors in net operating loss calculations, and in apprpriately misclassifying certain activities as exempt or otherwise non reportable on the Form 990.

Jeff Skilling, the former CEO of Enron who is currently sitting in federal prison for overseeing one of the largest and most notorious financial frauds in history, could be out of jail by 2018, according to Reuters, provided he stop appealing his conviction. The deal would end a long, multiyear legal process launched by Skilling since his 2006 conviction on charges of conspiracy, insider trading, making false statements to auditors and securities fraud.

As if there weren't enough things keeping you awake at night, a University of Hawaii study has revealed that the vast majority of spreadsheets, 88 percent, have errors in at least one percent of all formula cells, according to MarketWatch. Given the size of many spreadsheets, having just one error can cause cascades of inaccuracies that can lead to conclusions that are, themselves, erroneous.

The American Civil Liberties Union has reported that the IRS may be able to legally access taxpayers' emails without the use of a warrant, according to Slate.

The White House's latest budget proposal will include new measures to combat identity theft, according to the Associated Press. It will include harsher measures against those who commit tax-related identity theft and increase civil penalties on those who file fraudulent returns, continued the AP.

If people were going to wager on who would make more money in the stock market over 15 years, an experienced trader or a baby, most people would probably bet on the grownup.

The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking information on possible sham foundations based in the Principality of Lichtenstein that may have been used to help U.S. citizens evade taxes, according to Bloomberg. The inquiry is part of a widening probe of the role of Swiss banks―many of which use Liechtensteinian financial institutions to manage their assets―in facilitating U.S. tax evasion. The U.S.

While major financial institutions passed the Federal Reserve's latest round of stress tests, they did not do so with flying colors of any sort, with banks barely surpassing the minimum common capital ratios that test how well they would do in the event of a catastrophic financial crisis, according to the Business Insider. The 18 banks were tested on a variety of possible scenarios that included major economic crises in not just the U.S.

The IRS recently released its latest Taxpayer Attitudes Survey, which revealed that the vast majority of people, 87 percent, believe it is always wrong to cheat on your taxes, according to the Associated Press. The reason? For 95 percent of respondents, it's because of personal integrity and honesty; a slightly smaller number, 63 percent, said it was because they fear an audit.

It may well be the largest credit card fraud ring in the nation, according to federal authorities who charged 18 people today with bank fraud for enacting a global scheme that stole $200 million over six years, according to the Associated Press. The scam operated on a massive scale, encompassing 28 states and seven countries.