Paul Strassels, former Tax Law Specialist at the

IRS, will take you where no other tax adviser ever

has-inside the IRS group mind and its strategy of

tax collection. The basis of that strategy is to cre-

ate fear, as much of it as possible. For the IRS be-

lieves that the only honest taxpayer is the anxious

and frightened taxpayer.

The big weapon is the audit, whose basic pur-

pose.is not to pull more money out of you, but to

scare you into lifelong, tax-time honesty. And

when your friends hear about how you dreaded

the agent and what he did to your return, you

help the Service spread audit fear. The IRS knows

that the more people hate, despise, and fear them,

the more efficient their operation becomes.

Other weapons of terror

~ The Taxpayers Compliance Management

Program, a system of exhaustive audits

that enables the IRS to behave as if it

knows exactly where and how much you

cheat

~ The Problem Preparers Program, a secret

list of accountants the IRS doesn t like and

tries to hound out of business

~ A way of training IRS agents to produce a

cadre of loyal and unquestioning foot

soldiers

~ A policy of manipulating the press to con-

fuse and intimidate the public

~ A constant set of pressures on your ac-

countant to work for the IRS, not for you

But armed with an insider s knowledge, you

will learn:

~ Where gaps exist in the supposedly perfect

IRS return processing system

~ What 24 safe deductions you can take

without worry

~ What 14 risky deductions could trigger an

audit