Is ‘Friending’ in Your Future? Better Pay Your Taxes First

By LAURA SAUNDERS

WSJ

Tax deadbeats are finding someone actually reads their MySpace and Facebook postings: the taxman.

State revenue agents have begun nabbing scofflaws by mining information posted on social-networking Web sites, from relocation announcements to professional profiles to financial boasts.

In Minnesota, authorities were able to levy back taxes on the wages of a long-sought tax evader after he announced on MySpace that he would be returning to his home town to work as a real-estate broker and gave his employer’s name. The state collected several thousand dollars, the full amount due.

Meanwhile, agents in Nebraska collected $2,000 from a deejay after he advertised on his MySpace page that he would be working at a big public party.

In California, which has recently been so strapped for revenue it has had to pay some bills with IOUs, agents are also using social Web sites. When one delinquent was identified as a rigger of sails, a curious collection agent searched his name and the term online and found a discussion board used by local riggers. In one thread someone asked where the rigger was because his store had closed, and a reply was posted, “Oh, he moved across the bay.” The agent found the man and collected a four-figure sum.

An Internal Revenue Service spokesman declined to say whether its agents use social-networking sites to pursue delinquent taxes or assist audits.

Searches for tax dodgers typically begin with examinations of bank, employment, tax, and motor-vehicle records. “These new supplements are often far more efficient than the older ones, such as reading the local newspaper or making inquiries at barbershops and church meetings,” said Jim Eads, director of the Federation of Tax Administrators.

Now, when a tax dodger can’t be found, said Nebraska tax official Steven Schroeder, agents often turn to Google. One agent collected $30,000 of unpaid tax from a resident after a Google search found him listed as a high-ranking local marketing rep for a national firm. If a Google online search isn’t productive, agents use the social sites or chat rooms in a last-chance hunt for their quarries.

There are limits to what state agents can do on the Web. In Nebraska, agents are only allowed to use information that is publicly available online. So, MySpace — owned by News Corp., publisher of The Wall Street Journal — tends to work best because its users often post more public information than do those of sites like Facebook, Mr. Schroeder said. The default settings for adults on MySpace create a public profile, while the default settings on Facebook create a profile only viewable by an approved list of friends.

“Agents are not allowed to ‘friend’ someone using false information,” Mr. Schroeder said. The same ethics rules hold in California, according to a spokesman for the state’s Franchise Tax Board.

Not all state tax departments are jumping on the trend. Massachusetts, long known for its aggressive tax collections, said it has “no systematic program” for trawling social media at the moment. According to Mr. Eads of the tax administrators’ group, many state tax authorities currently block social sites on workplace computers to prevent employees from spending personal time on them. “They may change their minds,” he said.

“Using social media is something we will explore,” said Jessica Iverson, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. A spokesman for Oregon’s revenue agency said his state is also “considering it.”

Other states are looking for ways use Internet information to enhance not only collections but also audits and negotiations. A Minnesota tax official said that when firms try to negotiate payments by claiming to be strapped for cash, agents always check their Web sites. At the time one tanning business was crying poverty to the state, agents pointed out that its site boasted of supplying all the tans for participants in a big body-building contest.

Everything You Need to Know About the H1N1 Vaccine

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 
By Marrecca Fiore

Safety questions are being raised about the rush to get an H1N1 vaccine into the hands of doctors before the virus re-emerges this fall, possibly more dangerous and widespread than it was last spring.

And, those questions are brewing concern among many Americans wondering whether to risk putting off being vaccinated, or take a shot at beating the bug before it gains the upperhand.

“They’re pushing it as fast as they can, but they still have to meet good manufacturing standards,” said Dr. Peter Gross, senior vice president and chief medical officer at Hackensack University Medical Center.

“It will be tested to make sure it’s safe and contains the proper amounts of protective antibodies,” said Gross, who tested flu vaccines for 20 years for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

How It’s Being Made

Each year, scientists with the FDA, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, and vaccine manufacturers meet in January or February to decide which strains of the flu virus will be included in the seasonal flu vaccine.

From there, the chosen strains will be sent to the World Health Organization so that its scientists can view the selected strains and make any necessary — though usually minor — changes, said Gross.

“So they really start the process nine months ahead of time,” Gross said.

Manufacturers begin making the virus in the spring so that it will be ready to use in the fall.

Like the seasonal flu vaccine, the new H1N1 vaccine will be made using innoculated eggs. The viruses used in the manufacturing process are dead, which means they cannot sicken people who are vaccinated, but will help them build immunity to live viruses — that can be spread from person to person. Unlike, the seasonal flu vaccine, the new H1N1 vaccine will contain just one strain of the flu virus instead of three.

H1N1 Is Nothing New

The H1N1 flu virus has been around for decades in various strains. The new virus, however, is different in that it contains a mix of human, bird and swine strains of the virus.

“An H1N1 strain has been included in the influenza vaccine every year since 1977,” Gross said, “which is why the elderly and people in their 50s who have been getting the vaccine for the past 32 years are not really at a significant risk for complications from the novel H1N1 virus, like they are from the seasonal flu.”

The process of manufacturing the H1N1 vaccine is also being made over a much shorter time period than the traditional flu vaccine because of fears of what might happen should a fall or winter outbreak occur and no vaccine be available.

“If people aren’t vaccinated, you’re going to see a lot more complications, a lot more hospitalizations,” said Gross. “Even so, we have to realize that the experience the U.S. had with novel H1N1 virus is very different than the experience Mexico had. Mexico had a lot more deaths. We’ve had 500 to 600, and I’m not trying to minimize any of the deaths, but that’s not even on par with the seasonal flu, which results in about 35,000 deaths.”

The first human volunteers to test the new vaccine were inoculated this month. Most of the volunteers will receive two shots, spaced three weeks apart and it will take another few weeks for volunteers to demonstrate full immunity to the virus if the vaccine works the way it should.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said Monday that all Americans who receive the vaccine will also need two shots, meaning that if the vaccine arrives on schedule for mid-October, most will not have full immunity to the virus until Thanksgiving.

However, fears that manufacturers are moving too fast may be unfounded.

“If the vaccine passes all of the trials and the only thing that results is a sore arm, then most people who receive the vaccine will probably only receive a sore arm,” Gross said. “Serious side effects are rare and we might not know what those will be until 100,000 or a million people are vaccinated. Serious side effects for the polio vaccine were 1 in a million and that’s something you can’t figure out until a million people are vaccinated.”

Three Shots Instead of One?

Americans are potentially looking at three flu shots this year instead of the normal one shot. That would include one for the seasonal flu, and two for the new H1N1 virus.

Who should consider getting all three?

“Pregnant women, people in their 20s to 40s, very young children and, in contrast to previous years, those above 50 will not need the H1N1 vaccine unless they are in a high risk category or have underlying health problems,” Gross said.