JustinSpeak

Disclaimer: I know these attorneys, and I helped build the site.  Nonetheless, I love the law and hope that S & P and the other law firms out there help clean up some of the white collar crime out there.  Nothing upset me more than the Enron scandal, and this is tool in the toolbox to help fight that battle.

There is more to it than what I’m about to say, but you’ll get the basic idea.  If you know of a business or individual that has underreported at least $2,000,000 in taxes, then you can turn them into the IRS and be rewarded up to 30% of the amount collected.  In other words, say your employer has buried $10,000,000 in some tax shelter, and you rat them out, you’re entitled to up to $3,000,000.  Not a bad gig if you can get it. The name of this program is the Tax Whistleblower Rewards Program.

There are a bunch of tax whistleblower attorneys out there, but the guys at RewardTax are former IRS attorneys.  According to them, and again I’m inclined to believe them since I’ve met them personally, this gives them an insider knowledge that greatly helps your chances of getting the full 30% reward.

In the interest of being fair, here is what I don’t like about the whole deal. First, you have to be very careful.  I imagine the type of people willing to cheat on their taxes to the tune of $2,000,000 or more are probably the same type of people that would do very awful things to those who crossed them.  Second, there is no guarantee the IRS is going to give the award. Even if you have the best attorney in the world, the IRS still has to accept a case and collect the money.  That being said, the IRS is pretty serious about this program.

Working with S & P Law Firm has given me the opportunity to research this program quite extensively.  I’ve scoured every word of all the sites of attorneys that let you report tax fraud. In the end, when you pick your attorney I would look for the following qualifications:

1. They know the program and the law inside and out.
2. They take confidentiality very seriously.
3. They answer every question you have and take their time with you.

If you, my dearest reader, knows someone cheating on their taxes while the rest of us follow the rules, then turn them in to the IRS.  You might make some money too!

Here’s the recipe for the best bratwurst evah.

• 1 package of bratwurst or about 12 single ones if you know a good meat shop and will buy them individually
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 2 good beers.  Don’t use cheap shit.
• about 3 tablespoons of brown sugar
• about 2 teaspoons of chili powder
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 large white onion, coarsley chopped
• 2 teaspoons of black pepper
• 1 foil roasting pan
• aluminum foil
• charcoal grill

Put the brats in the roasting pan and pour the two beers over them. Then you throw the rest of the shit in there and let it sit in the fridge for about five hours.  When they’re good and soaked, prepare your grill.  When you arrange your charcoal be sure to move them to the edges so you have a big spot cleared for indirect heat.  Now the recipe gets really simple.  Put the roasting pan on the spot in the grill where there are no coals, cover it with foil and let it simmer for probably 40 minutes. Every 10 minutes, move the brats around and turn them so they cook evenly.

After 40 minutes of simmering, take the bratwurst out of the bath and throw them on the grill over the coals.  Brown them for about 2 or 3 minutes a side and put them back in the roasting pan.  Remove the roasting pan from the grill and serve.  Please, for the love of all things sacred, don’t use hot dog buns.  Use a good hoagie roll and serve with a quality spicy brown mustard and some onions from the brat bath.

See how hot we are in ASCII?! You can generate your own ASCII image by going to Typorganism.

Dang! I moved out of SF just a little too early.  Would have been SO cool to see.  I do find it strange how the people on Baker Beach just kept going about their days with an Imperial Star Destroyer hovering so closely above.

The Live Video Control Room at NBCOlympics.com is the coolest thing ever. You can watch up to four events at once, assign different video to different screens, jump from sport to sport, enlarge a video if you’re particularly interested and there are other features I’m still learning.  This is major cool.  I wish Joost would have been able to do this (I like supporting the little guy).  Speaking of supporting the little guy, Micrsoft’s Silverlight technology really seems to be making a name for itself here.  Yeah, its a Flash alternative, but if NBCOlympics.com is taste of the potential of Silverlight, then I guess we have room for another fancy Internet technology.