The IRS is meticulous, so be cautious about what you publish publicly because the IRS can and will use it against you if possible.

Tax professional (and #TaxTwitter regular) Roger Ledbetter, shared a case where taxpayers tried shifting income between businesses to claim losses they weren’t entitled to. The IRS opened the case by quoting the taxpayer from an article published 25 years earlier, where he admitted to poor accounting practices. Talk about thorough!

A reminder that anything you post publicly can be used against you by the IRS. Take the case of billionaire Michael Taylor, who claimed to have moved from DC to Florida to save on taxes. The state taxing authorities argued that his primary residence was still in DC, bringing up his Facebook posts about living in DC as evidence. He ended up owing $150M in back taxes.

So, the next time you feel like boasting on social media, make sure your tax returns tell the same story.