tax cheats

A handful of cash-strapped states are getting aggressive about collecting every tax owed -- hiring more collectors, hounding scofflaws and exploiting corners of their tax laws that haven't been enforced in years -- all to avoid doing one painful thing: officially raising taxes.

Nobody likes paying the IRS, and we all wish there were just a few more deductions we could swing without arousing the taxman's ire. And there are: Here are a few deductions that, while they might seem to be a little out of bounds, are totally legal.

Most people pay their taxes voluntarily, but with at least one type of tax, millions of Americans break the law every year -- and many probably never realize it. Now, states in desperate need of more revenue are trying to do something about that.

Nobody enjoys paying taxes, so hearing that Congress is cutting the IRS budget might inspire you to applaud. But this is the agency that makes sure the rest of government gets funded, and stops the unscrupulous from dodging their fair share of the burden.

If you have proof of financial crime -- corporate malfeasance or tax evasion, say -- you shouldn't keep it to yourself: Rewards for whistleblowers can reach as high as 15 to 30 percent of the money recovered by the government. Read on for some recent examples of richly rewarded whistleblowing, as well as tips for anyone thinking of blowing the whistle.

Male, single, age 45 and under. Big spender. Sounds like a dating ad from the classifieds, right? Not quite. That, according to a study by the advertising and marketing firm DDB Worldwide Communications Group, is the profile of the person most likely to cheat on a federal income tax return.

Celebrities usually crave the spotlight. But some well-known people have attracted a lot of attention they didn't want -- from the IRS. While Wesley Snipes and Willie Nelson may be the poster boys for celebrity tax troubles, these other famous faces are some of the latest to get their 15...

In the annals of government surveys, this may be among the silliest. The IRS queried taxpayers about whether they think cheating on your taxes is wrong. Not surprisingly, they said they do. A mere 8% of respondents to the 2010 Taxpayer Attitude Survey said that they believe that it's OK to cheat...

Now that they are nearly done squeezing Swiss bank UBS for information about its wealthy tax-dodging clients, the IRS and the Justice Department are moving on to new tax fraud targets: Clients of London-based bank HSBC Holdings, mostly those with ties to India and Singapore.

Admit it, it drives you nuts: You know someone who has cheated on his or her taxes, and you think you can't do a thing about it. Or maybe you can. The IRS Whistleblower Office was established by the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 to encourage taxpayers who witness tax problems to make...