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Giving by individuals fell an estimated 3.4 percent, after adjusting for inflation, last year, according to a report by Giving USA. The numbers reflect the first year of the 2017 tax overhaul that expanded the standard deduction, a simpler way of filing taxes, but also excluded millions of taxpayers from claiming a tax break for donating to charity.

Total estimated giving by corporations, foundations, as well as individuals, fell about 1.7 percent, after inflation, to $427.7 billion. Individuals account ...

Although the April filing deadline has passed, scam artists remain hard at work, and the IRS is warning of a spring surge of phishing emails and telephone scams.

The IRS is seeing signs of two new variations of tax-related scams. One involves Social Security numbers related to tax issues and another threatens people with a tax bill from a fictional government agency. Here are some details:

* The SSN hustle. The latest twist includes scammers claiming to be ...

• During Fiscal Year 2018, the IRS collected nearly $3.5 trillion,
processed more than 250 million tax returns and other forms, and
issued almost $464 billion in tax refunds.
• Close to 58 million taxpayers were assisted by calling or visiting
an IRS office.
• The use of IRS website, IRS.gov, continued to grow with almost
608.8 million visits.
• Of the taxpayers who participated in the 2018 Comprehensive
Taxpayer Attitude Survey, 85% said it is not at all acceptable to
cheat on their ...