<p>Last week, I was fortunate enough to be able to buy one of those "All In One" machines for my computer. It is really neat, because I do a lot of faxing and scanning and printing, because I run a little business out of my home. I was soo happy to finally be able to buy a high quality "All In One", that I told my pals about it. One of my pals asked to come over to my home to use it and I was like:"sure, man no problem."
I am such a geek that I showed my pal what the machine could do and showed my pal some new mp3 files I downloaded and assorted other dorky stuff like that. I asked my pal what they were going to use my machine for and they said to send off their income verification stuff for University in the fall. I was picked for that myself recently (we go to different Universities) and we chatted about that for a bit.
To make a long story short, my pal wanted to use my new "All In One" machine to dummy up tax information. They wanted to send off totally forged income tax information! I refused to let my pal (who is no longer my pal) do this because I am a not into fraud, you know? It was horrible looking W2's and horrible looking 1040's that they wanted to scan out and tweak and whatnot.
I am a peace loving Quaker, so my former pal and I did not get in a fight or anything. But, when and if my former pal sends this stuff off, aren't they going to go to jail or something? I would like to know what to try and do to help out because, even though my former pal and I had an argument, I do not wish to see them go to jail.</p>
<p>It is fraud to submit false information. I would think forging the tax forms (parent signatures are required on the parent forms) is a federal offense...forgery. You made your statement. Do not let them use your equipment under any circumstances.</p>
<p>It's pretty stupid to alter tax forms. The numbers can easily be checked against gov information. They are taking a chance for sure. The problem when dealing with the IRS on this kind of stuff it isn't necessarily immediate, often it's down the road when the red flags pop up and information doesn't jive. Then the fun starts. </p>
<p>They may fool somebody short term, but there's an old addage about lies..You have to remember lies. If these are their parents W-2s and 1040's they could be messing their folks up quite a bit.</p>
<p>Just say sorry no. Let them do it elsewhere.</p>
<p>I would never let anyone use my computer equipment to do a darn thing which would be considered illegal, because that is just not my thing. I made that fact clear to my (former) friend, but they are still going to fake their own (not their parents) tax forms. My friend is 26, so their parents have nothing to do with this. </p>
<p>What I am truly curious about is what is going to happen to this person? </p>
<p>They are lying about all of this because they do not have employment at all and their husband supports them.I am scared as to what will happen, but I am glad that I said heck no in response to being asked to use my "All in One" machine. I solely bought a nice "All in One" machine for my greeting card sideline business and to print out things for my classes, like maybe to save on books, I will be printing out Shakespeare's sonnets and plays in the fall.</p>
<p>They are also making it look as though they are not married. </p>
<p>I personally think this is really horrible fraud and I do not get it, because if you are honest...the worse that could happen is that you might have to go part time or something if you do not obtain a lot in grants and what have you.</p>
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What I am truly curious about is what is going to happen to this person?
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<p>What s/he is doing is a criminal offense which is punishable by both fines and jail time. If criminal charges are filed against them, they can also be filed against you for acting in concert and even interstate commerce (the irs are not people whose bad sides you want to be on), because you are responsible for anything that happens with in your home or when others are using your equipment. This could mean an inveestigation of all of your records, and possibly fines and jail time for you also.</p>
<p>In addition they may be required to repay all of the monies (pell grants, loans, scholarships) that they have recieved from the school. </p>
<p>Even if he makes restitution, since we are living in a post 911 world if he needs to do anything that requires a background check (working for financial institutions, kids, law enforcement, etc.) the information will come up.</p>
<p>He will always have to put the information on any job credit application that he fills out. So unless he is independently weathy and will never have a need for anything I would suggest not doing it.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that at any time the school can request original documentation.</p>
<p>Do any of you guys have any advice on how I should approach this situation with my (former) pal? I got very mad at them, but I do not want to have their husband call me one day and tell me that she is in jail. </p>
<p>I stand by my refusing to participate (indirectly) in this matter, but I do not know what to do exactly in order to help out.</p>
<p>It is my hope that the University just says;" Oh heck no!" and tells this person that they just cannot obtain funding on the basis of what they submitted and have that be that. I mean, I can hope that, can't I? I would rather see this person just not get their schooling, than be in jail. It is odd because we both live in a city which has four major Universities and a big old Community College (which is really cheap).</p>
<p>My motto has always been to be truthful and worse case scenario, go part time. But, then again, I am not married :( so I do not know exactly what kind of pressures may be going on here.</p>
<p>You have made your decision, stand by it . You do not need to do anything else. After all has been said and done, you are talking about grown people making decisions and will have to accept the consequences for their actions. There is no right way to do something you know is wrong.</p>
<p>From the husband's standpoint, he has a vested interest in telling his wife not to do this especially if they file jointly, because he too can be prosecuted for fraud because he is jointly responsible for the information on the tax forms.</p>