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How The IRS Uses Social Networking Sites to Find Tax Dodgers

Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are obviously huge hits on the web. In fact, they are such big hits that the IRS now uses them to track down tax dodgers that owe thousands in back taxes.

I'll admit it. I get on Facebook and spend many useless hours connecting with old high school buddies and then tracking through their pages to find other people as well. Hey, it's addictive and I am not the only one who thinks so. People who haven't paid taxes in years are going on social networking sites, listing their names and getting nabbed by the IRS.

The IRS is a large, cumbersome government agency. If you fail to pay taxes this year, the agency isn't going to do much more than send a few letters. Like a boulder, it takes a while for the collection effort to get moving. Once it does, however, the momentum is nearly impossible to stop and the IRS will literally hunt you to the ends of the earth.

The first step of the collection process is simple. The IRS uses other government document depositories to try to locate you. It will use the postal service to look for addresses, but will also tap into DMV, social security, bank and credit reports to try to find you. If this doesn't work, the agents go online and do searches for your name to see if they can come up with something. If that fails, it is just a couple of clicks to the big social networking sites where they can start searching for you.

The interesting thing about social networking sites is how readily willing a person is to list so much personal information. A person who hasn't paid taxes in a few years is obviously pretty careful about what they say and to whom. The IRS, however, has been able to actually find people on Twitter and hunt them down using the tweets the tax dodger sends out!

Social networking sites are some of the best on the web. Just keep in mind that more than just old high school friends might be looking for you.