 Internal Revenue Service IRS tax news! IRS joins efforts to fight charity fraud during International Recognition Week? Yeah, I think that's a good idea IRS. I mean, did you see that Candace Owens documentary on the Black Lives Matter, not for profit organization? The administrators seem to have inexplicably become real estate moguls. Plus, they seem to be funding some kind of transgender mafia or something over there, I swear. And I mean, transgenderism doesn't have anything to do with Black Lives Mattering, it seems to me. You know what I mean, IRS? Like, transgenderism often seems more like a desperate content creator thing. Creators attempting to be part of the intersectional hierarchy, so the algorithm might give them like a YouTube viewer too. Just kidding, just kidding YouTube, that was totally just a joke. We all know your algorithm is totally like fairs of square with unequal sides, which isn't technically a square, but whatever, it's just a joke. Here's another one, sorry it's kind of a long joke Monday here. Dear God, Scooby Doo, what did they do to you? Apparently they couldn't teach an old dog new woke tricks. It's blinking, our families are blind, sir. So the dog had to go, and the new Scooby Doo show. Do you need any calls? No. Any messages? No. Any customers? No, Dr. Venkman. Type something, will you, we're paying for this stuff. Well, I guess actually it's the Velma spinoff, so at least they kept something, but still. Okay, I mean, this looks like another IP not handled well. And I personally think it's because a dog is a man's best friend. What has that got to do with it? Back off, man, I'm a scientist. And apparently, according to just about every mainstream writer these days, men suck. I look out there at all of you wonderful guys and I say to myself, what I wouldn't give would be 20 years younger and a woman. So once again, the dog had to go. He hopped on, he hopped on, he signed an eviction notice. I mean, honestly, I bet they wanted to castrate poor Scooby like he was some poor, helpless five-year-old in the public school system. Raven's egg, blood of a hen. Little bit more blood, yes. Testicles of a newt. I guess he's a transsexual now. And Scooby just wasn't having it. The writers are like, well, Scooby, if you won't allow us to castrate you, we'll just change the focus to Velma. They've taken the castle. I thought it felt a bit drafty. And Scooby's like, well, that's fine. You just do that. This never would have happened if your father was alive. He's dead? Yes. And my mother? She died of pneumonia while you were away. And we'll see how popular it is. My brothers? They were all killed by the plague. My dog Pongo? Run over by a carriage. It's not going well, is it? My goldfish Goldie? Eating by the cat. My cat? Choked on the goldfish. I don't know, but whose idea was it to write this show, LaTrainz? Such an unusual name, LaTrainz. You mean you changed it to LaTrainz? Yeah, used to bring shit out. It's a good change. We have a story to tell. Please lend us your ears. Gusty. I mean, honestly, I don't think the writers are going to be able to land this one. You know, I personally flown over 194 missions and I was shot down every one. Come to think of it, I've never landed a plane in my life. But disclaimer, I've never actually seen the show. So this is just a random meaningless rant. The IRS partners in this effort as part of its ongoing commitment to fight fraud against charities, businesses and individuals. Sounds good, IRS. I still think you should widen the political scope a bit in terms of the organizations you go after. But that's just my opinion. It's estimated that charitable organizations will lose 5% of their revenue each year to fraud according to the fraud advisory panel, a UK-based organization leading the effort by organizing this week of awareness. And I would think those types of not-for-profit organizations that are run by people actually committing fraud are likely to be losing more than 5% even in their particular amounts to fraud. But in any case, experts say cybercrime is on the rise, including attacks on charities, their supporters and beneficiaries. And this, of course, would make sense because we're kind of in an environment more ripe for fraud when there's a lot of changes with regards to the law and people are uncertain, they're changing jobs and so on and so forth. And, of course, we have the changing and ever-changing technology and the social media platforms and whatnot. So you would expect there's going to be new and changing environments for the fraudsters out there. So charities, regulators, agencies, law enforcement and other not-for-profit stakeholders around the world are working together to raise awareness about fraud and cybercrime that affects charities. These efforts resulted in seven days when supporters actively discussed fraud, shared best practices and often helpful resources. Seven days of discussion. Woo-hoo! The problem I have no doubt has been solved. Here we go. What did you come up with? How to verify a charity. Quote, we'd like to thank the fraud advisory panel for reminding donors to remain vigilant. Quote said IRS director of exempt organizations and government entities, Rob Malone. So clearly first thing that came out of that intense brainstorming, you need to be vigilant out there, guys. You need to be vigilant. Quote, unfortunately, natural disasters like Hurricane Iain provide an opportunity for charity scammers to take advantage of genuine efforts to help. I urge donors to verify a charity's tax-exempt status as tax-exempt organizations search. There's a link to that here before donating goods, services or money, end quote. So clearly one of the things we want to be aware of is that we want to see that the charity is actual and not-for-profit organization. And note the first step would be normally to check that they're a not-for-profit organization and you would think that fraudulent charities will often put pressure on you, social pressure in order to get you to give them money in a particular situation without basically double-checking too intensely. So they might try to ask you for money in public or say there's a time frame, they need it here and now or something like that. But oftentimes it would be nice if you're going to give to charity to actually say, no, I'm going to actually do my research and I would like my money to go somewhere that's a legitimate charity. Notice if it is a legitimate charity, that just means that they filed for not-for-profit status and they're a charity in terms of the tax code. That doesn't mean they're actually run well because charities actually have more difficulty running efficiently than for-profit organizations because if you give money to for-profit organizations you're buying their stock, for example, then you're checking up on them, you're giving them pressure because you expect a return. Not-for-profit organizations don't have that. You give money to a not-for-profit organization and you don't really follow up, you just say I did my good deed for the day and you go on your way. So there's not the same kind of pressure. So what you would like to do is even go a step further and look into those organizations that are not just not-for-profit organizations in terms of the tax code so that you get a write-off on it, but they actually spend the money well. They have a track record of being able to overcome the added adversity of being a not-for-profit organization with naturally leads to bloat, unefficiently run organizations. So that indicates fake charities. In addition to cyber crime, targeting charities, criminals who create fake charities are also a problem. Fake charities are part of the IRS's Dirty Dozen tax scams for 2022. There's a link to the Dirty Dozen tax scams here. As noted above, taxpayers should verify legitimate and qualified charities using the tax-exempt organization's search tool on IRS.gov. Now, if they're trying to get you to give money to a fake charity, then of course you can do research on the charity to check them out. And again, I would be weary of anybody that's trying to pressure you to give money publicly or to give money, you know, and have a time constraint or put like social pressure on you to give you money immediately. The sign of a scam is usually that they have something that you have to act now, you've got to do it now, and then they have a threat, which is the threat in this case, is if you don't act now, there's social pressure and you'll lose, you know, whatever in front of people. But no, you're going to say, no, I'm going to research the charity, see that you're actually legitimate, and then possibly I'll give it to you and I'm not, you know, going to worry about anything else except having my money go to somewhere where it might do some actual good, okay? So donors should never feel pressured to give it immediately. Links to more information, a special website was created for Charity Fraud Awareness Week. There's a link to that here, and features information to help mark partners, charities and other tax-exempt organizations and not-for-profit find details about Awareness Week. You can find free resources, a fraud pledge for organizations, a listing of webinars and other events. Those encouraged to participate in this week's activities include trustees, staff and volunteers from charities, non-government organizations and non-profits, organizations that represent the interest of non-profits, accountants, auditors and those acting as professional advisors to non-profits, regulators, law enforcement officials and policy makers working to safeguard non-profits. So visit the Fraud Advisory Panel. There's a link to that here, website to learn more about Charity Fraud Awareness Week and how to get involved. So you can check out those links and there'll be a link to this in the description.