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Finally, the IRS won one:

A civil court has ruled that a popular tax-avoidance scheme known as Son of Boss was abusive and any deductions claimed for it were invalid, an important victory for the Internal Revenue Service in its battle against questionable tax shelters sold to wealthy individuals.

And how does this "Son of Boss" tax avoidance scheme work? Is it even close to being legal? In the 75-page ruling, by Judge Mary Ellen Coster Williams, she writes:

The transaction's "fictional loss, inability to realize a profit, lack of investment character, meaningless inclusion in a partnership and disproportionate tax advantage as compared to the amount invested and potential return, compel a conclusion that the spread transaction objectively lacked economic substance."

Basically, these rich guys just made up losses to offset capital gains, and the IRS called them out on it. These fat cats will now be forced to pay back a large part of the money they've "stolen" by underpaying their taxes. In fact, this ruling will just help convince more tax cheats to pay up, following up on the more than $3.7 billion collected by 2005 by tax cheats using this illegal "Son of Boss" tax shelter.

When will these rich folks realize that paying taxes is not a bad thing, since it just means that there was a profit to pay taxes on in the first place? There's nothing more deplorable than an individual or corporation using the resources of our country and then not paying their fair share of the upkeep...

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