TEG
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 2016
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PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING
FAMILY OWNED SINCE 1895
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WWW.EMPORIAGAZETTE.COM
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TAX SEASON
BRINGS TAX SCAMS
By Jessie Wagoner
[email protected]
HOTEL CLOSURE LEAVES
‘AROUND 600 ROOMS’
LEFT IN EMPORIA
By John Robinson
[email protected]
When the Flint Hills Inns and
Suites closed in February, Susan
Rathke, Emporia Convention and
Visitors Bureau director at the
Emporia Chamber of Commerce
was informed the hotel was undergoing maintenance.
“We were notified that they
were closed to do some maintenance,” Rathke said. “We don’t
have any clear information on if
they will reopen.”
Flint Hills Inns and Suites is
listed as being owned by LAR Hotels LLC. The company is also listed as the owner of the La Quinta
Inns and Suites, which closed in
2015 after Rathke said the hotel
missed a remodeling deadline.
Please see Hotel, Page 5
KENDRA JOHNSON/GAZETTE
Flint Hills Inn and Suites, located at 2921 W. 18th Ave., closed in February. With the closure, there are
now 600 hotel rooms in 12 hotels in Emporia.
Now that tax season is in full
swing the scams that go with it
are also making an appearance.
The Kansas Department of Revenue has received reports of a tax
scam targeting Kansans.
The most recent tax scam involves an individual receiving a
call from someone claiming to
work for the IRS (Internal Revenue Service). The callers all say
that the recipient has a tax debt
with the state of Kansas and push
the recipient to pay the debt using a debit card or money order.
The caller threatens the recipient
with jail time.
“The recipients are also told
they failed to file Form 61, which
does not exist for the state of
Kansas,” the Department of Revenue said in a press release.
The calls show up on caller ID
as a valid Department of Revenue
number, 785-296-0671, which
connects to the department’s
public information officer.
“If taxpayers receive a call and
are unsure if it is fraudulent or not
they should call the department’s
tax customer service line at 785368-8222,” the release said.
Don Mertens of Emporia received a call similar to the Department of Revenue is warning
about. He says that the caller was
very demanding and forceful,
claiming he owed a $4,500 debt
to the state of Kansas.
“I know I don’t owe anyone, especially the state of Kansas, any
money,” Mertens said. “But he
kept insisting that I owed money
for failing to file the right forms.
He was very rude, demanding
that I pay now or I would be going to jail.”
Rather than paying any money
Mertens hung up the phone and
double checked with the state to
ensure he was not in debt and had
filed his taxes appropriately.
The IRS has also issued warnings about recent tax scams. One
tax scam involves a bogus email
asking tax professionals to update their IRS e-services portal
information and Electronic Filing
Identification Numbers (EFINs).
SCAM
ALERT
The links that are provided in
the bogus email to access IRS eservices appear to be a phishing
scheme designed to capture the
user name and password of the
tax preparer.
“This email was not generated
by the IRS e-services program,”
the release from the IRS said.
“Disregard this email and do not
click on the links provided.”
The IRS impersonation telephone scam is also increasing in
numbers. This involves an aggressive and sophisticated phone
scam targeting taxpayers, including recent immigrants. Callers
claim to be employees of the IRS,
using fake names and bogus IRS
identification badge numbers.
They may know a lot about their
targets and manipulate caller ID
to make it look like the IRS is calling.
“Victims are told they owe
money to the IRS and it must
be paid promptly through a preloaded debit card or wire transfer,” the IRS release reads. “If the
victim refuses to cooperate, they
are then threatened with arrest,
deportation or suspension of a
business or driver’s license. In
many cases, the caller becomes
hostile and insulting.”
The IRS will never:
✦✦Call to demand immediate
payment, nor will the agency
call about taxes owed without
first having mailed you a bill.
✦✦Demand that you pay taxes
without giving you the opportunity to question or appeal
the amount they say is owed.
✦✦Require you to use a specific
payment method for your
taxes, such as a prepaid debit
card.
✦✦Ask for credit or debit card
numbers over the phone.
✦✦Threaten to bring in local police or other law-enforcement
groups to have you arrested
for not making a payment.
K-STATE RESEARCHERS URGE ALERTNESS ON LONE STAR TICKS
Special to The Gazette
Climate change may have a new
way of getting under your skin.
Researchers in the College of
Veterinary Medicine at Kansas
State University have validated a
model showing growth in Kansas
for the habitat of the troublesome
lone star tick. Previously thought
only to live in the eastern third of
the state, computational modeling
and live specimens have revealed
the existence of these ticks as far
west as Colby, which is only 55
miles from the Colorado state line.
Ram Raghavan, assistant professor in the Kansas State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and
diagnostic medicine and pathobiology department, published the
findings in the March 2016 issue
of Vector-Borne and Zoonotic
VOL. 124, NO. 214
Diseases. He collaborated on the
article “Maximum Entropy-Based
Ecological Niche Model and BioClimatic Determinants of Lone
Star Tick (Amblyomma americanum) Niche” with faculty from
Kansas State University’s entomology and geography departments as well as other experts in
the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Raghavan said the best-known
diseases resulting from pathogens transmitted by the lone star
tick include human monocytic
ehrlichiosis and h