Internal Revenue Service

Oncor's "Phantom Tax" Windfall May Become Permanent as Bill Hits Texas House Floor

Oncor, the Dallas-based sticks-and-wires utility, has collected half a billion dollars from ratepayers since 2007 for federal income taxes. But according to a report, the IRS hasn't received a dime. In fact, most of that cash has gone to its struggling parent, Energy Future Holdings, which is march ... More >>

Thanks a Bunch, IRS. Now We Gotta Respect the Tea Party -- a Little Bit.

Wow. I take it all back, Tea Party. You cool. In fact, I'm jealous. Targeted by the IRS. There was a time when that would have been my dream come true. I remember back in the day when my hippie friends started getting their FBI files under the Freedom of Information Act. I was always afraid to as ... More >>

The IRS Targeted at Least Two Local Tea Party Groups by Sending Them a Really Long Questionnaire

Washington is still reeling from the revelation on Friday that the IRS has been singling out Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny. The news immediately drew howls of bipartisan protest, and pretty much everyone agrees that using the tax system to target political enemies is not what happens in a heal ... More >>

Far North Dallas Tax Office Gets Surprise Package of Weed in Mail, Inexplicably Turns it Into Police

The life of a tax office mail clerk seems that it'd be dull. Box after cardboard box of IRS forms, IRS instruction manuals and IRS paraphernalia, with only an occasional piece of computer equipment to spice things up. So, yesterday's special delivery must have come as a surprise to the clerk at a F ... More >>

Colleyville Pharmacist Larry Lake Didn't Pay $4.8 Million in Taxes, So He'll Probably be Going to Jail

Larry Lake and his wife, Kathy, were living a comfortable life in the Dallas suburbs until October 2010, when federal agents abruptly descended on their Colleyville home and left with some $6 million in cash. The money, it seems, was legit, simply the revenue from Lakes' companies, namely Grapevine ... More >>

The Ten-Percenter: How the Feds Say Lone Star Horse Bettors Tried to Avoid Paying Taxes

Horse racing may be dying, but the horse track remains a uniquely fascinating place, with its mix of blue bloods and lowlifes united by a pursuit that cuts across all class lines: gambling. Even Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, a venue that from the outside seems relatively staid, is party to its sh ... More >>

Apocalypse Now(ish): Irvin Baxter's End Times Empire

Death, destruction and the end of humanity: Dallas pastor Irvin Baxter is building a media juggernaut by predicting the very worst.

Someone Accidentally Called in a Bomb Threat to the Census Bureau's Dallas Office Yesterday

Census takers probably aren't the most beloved people in the country, tasked as they are with knocking on strangers' doors and asking probing questions like How many people live in your household? and Are you or are you not Hispanic?, but they're not IRS agents. They're not so odious as to merit hat ... More >>

Shake-Guzzling, Pat Robertson-Suing Dallas Bodybuilder Sentenced to Federal Prison

It takes a special type of person to sue televangelist Pat Robertson over a weight loss shake and say things to a reporter like "Me and Robertson are coming in a head-on crash," and "This ain't no goddamn game. He wants to come after me? Bring it fuckin' on." It takes an equally special person to re ... More >>

The Black Police Association's Disappearing Money

Organization's books weren't cooked -- they simply don't exist.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State Wants IRS to Investigate Jeffress, FBD

From First Baptist Dallas's home page​Robert Jeffress endorsed Rick Perry Friday, but it's the gift that keeps on giving. As in: The Americans United for Separation of Church and State has sent a letter today to the Internal Revenue Service insisting that the First Baptist Dallas pastor's endorsem ... More >>

One Irving Man's Art of Pleading Guilty to Defrauding the I.R.S. Out of $400,000

This Chucho Reyes piece is available right here, right now, for $765.​Mexican folk artist Jesús "Chucho" Reyes Ferreira died in 1979, leaving behind an estimable collection of works -- some of which, over the years, have turned up at auction at places like Sotheby's and New York's Swann Gallerie ... More >>

Shove It, Taxman

Feds Arrest Dallas Man For Mailing Baking Soda to IRS and Social Security Administration

​Although investigators aren't linking him to the series of white powder mailings throughout North Texas, Michael Wayne Patterson was arrested Thursday by federal law enforcement officers and was detained today pending an August 30 detention hearing, according to U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks. ... More >>

Four Months After Hubbie Pleaded Guilty to Tax Evasion, Realtor Eleanor Sheets Joins In

Eleanor Mowery Sheets and husband Nicky​Again, this is Candy Evans's beat -- why, just today she noted over on D's DallasDirt that the former manse of Eleanor and Nicky Sheets is selling at half off the original asking price after it failed to move at an IRS auction in February. Nevertheless, this ... More >>

In Crime and Punishment News, An Ex-HP Cop and a Former Taxman Are Going to Prison

​A couple of notable press releases from the U.S. Attorney's Office just landed in the Unfair Park in-box, the most recent of which has to do with a former Internal Revenue Service employee sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay to 16 months in the federal hoosegow for taking a brib ... More >>

The Feds' Local Tax Busts Best-Of: The Chart-Topping Hits From 2009

​There's magic in these hits hot off the charts, all charged with original star power -- pure power! New, from K-Tel and the U.S. Attorney's Office, this hit parade of local tax preparers, investment advisers and other no-filing nogoodniks currently serving five to Top 10! The original hits of '09 ... More >>

Heritage Sues to Determine Who Really Owns Michael Jackson's Stuff

​Back in November, Unfair Park's across-the-street neighbor Heritage Auction Galleries auctioned off a pile of Michael Jackson memorabilia, including a signed guitar, some autographed album covers and his fedora. Heritage says it got the stuff from a Los Angeles man named Benson Hopp, to whom Heri ... More >>

Dallas IRS Agent, Meet the FBI

​Fernando Hernandez is a 33-year-old Internal Revenue Service employee working out of the Dallas office. Only, today he's in federal custody after having been arrested by federal authorities, who dropped by Friday morning following a Dallas federal grand jury's decision to indict Hernandez for jus ... More >>

Today's Important Advice Comes From ...

​... William "Tex" Moncrief Jr., the Fort Worth oilman and Internal Revenue Service fan who comes in at No. 366 on Forbes' latest list of the 400 Richest Americans. So, what does the man in possession of 20,000 acres of undeveloped Barnett Shale property have to say in the magazine's 22-question s ... More >>

Goin’ To The Chapel: When Is A Mexican Girl Ripe For Marriage

Brint Ryan Makes Good on His Threat to Sue Fellow Council Candidate Ann Margolin

Last week, when District 13 city council candidate Ann Margolin started circulating to the media a copy of a $482,337.09 federal tax lien filed by the Internal Revenue Service against Brint Ryan, who's also running for Mitchell Rasansky's soon-to-be-vacated seat, I contacted the IRS for further expl ... More >>

Re: FYI, Read This ASAP. OMG!

The following is a prime example of my curse here on Earth. A fleeting thought sprouts into a mild observation, only to bloom into a thesis that eventually flourishes into a blog item with sports branches. My apologies ... Got a text the other day, the salutation of which was LOL ... More >>

The Alleged Events Leading Up to Russ Martin's Arrest Friday Morning

Ask A Mexican

Identity theft is bad. Dealing with the IRS is even worse.

I Sue You, You Sue Me

Life Without Debt Leaves Jimmy Phipps Owing Society

Should One Deduction Lead to Another?

Oh, DowntownDallas, the U.S. Government Wants Some Money. Like, Yesterday.

Someone Needs an Income Tax Extension

Korman and the Taxmen

Oily Fingers?

To Save Cash

Letters

Too Damn Scary Virginia Speaks

Suckahs

Why try to be good when it only turns out bad?

The Taxman Cometh

The IRS delivers a slap to a dubious charity deal

Best Reason to Move South By Southwest to Dallas

Because Austin stopped being cool about a decade ago

Sweetheart Deal

How does Virginia McGuire make a profit in the nonprofit business of creating affordable housing? Simple. She pays her husband.

Rave On

Electronic acts make a good showing around town

Best Waitstaff

The Riviera

Letters

Surfin' Texas; The Other Side; Hillbilly Justice; Willis Bashing; Death and Taxes; Superman Lives; Doomed to Fail

Letters

World of Hurt; Yucky Bathrooms; Don't Call Home; Cops and Ravers; Legal Kidnappings; Clarification

Taxing Situation

A tax-protesting CEO enlists his employees in the cause

Victimless crime

Bungling thieves, piles of gold, jailhouse snitches, and bloody clothes. Prosocuretors in Madalyn Murray O'Hair's disappearance had everything -- except three corpses

Goodfella

Playing a high-rolling mobster, Norm Berger was a convincing undercover agent for the IRS and FBI. Then the government accused him of pocketing some of the proceeds. As Norm would say, "Ya gonna love this one."

Cowtown Babylon

When Fort Worth oil tycoon Tex Moncrief accused his secretary of embezzlement, she says, he left out one important detail: their 16-year affair

We are the R.O.T.

The Enloes are Republic of Texas stalwarts, but they don't go for hostage-taking. They prefer using bogus money orders to battle "the eight banking families that control the world."

Taxman cometh

IRS drops the other shoe on former First Republic bankers