Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

Hot on the Heels of Grandmas. Yes, dear, it's the IRS.

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Editorials & Other Articles Donate to DU
 
MissMarple Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-19-04 04:52 PM
Original message
Hot on the Heels of Grandmas. Yes, dear, it's the IRS.
Edited on Thu Feb-19-04 05:00 PM by MissMarple
The story is great. The tax investigation trends are depressing.

"Low-income taxpayers earning $25,000 are just as likely to be audited as higher-income taxpayers earning more than $100,000.

About these three-year trends, TRAC says that "criminal enforcement is in shambles"; that there are problems with "corporate responsibility and the Bush administration"; and that the IRS is currently "going after the little guys."

Hmmm. Why my mom? The IRS randomly picks 1.5 percent of taxpayers and then looks for "discrepancies" in the taxpayer's return and bank account. In mom's case, discrepancies did exist. Here's the kicker: My dad died in 2001, and in 2002 my mom and I sold all of his accumulated stuff - his truck, small airplane, motorcycles, and lots and lots of shop tools and toys. Mom also sold their house and bought a condo in town. Money came from all these sales, went into mom's bank account, and then into fixed-income bonds. The IRS is auditing mom because she had "unusual activity in her bank account." Her accountant explained this "unusual activity" to the IRS agent. "Sorry," the agent said, "the audit continues." "

Maybe Lou Dobbs could put the taxes paid by the names of corporations he lists as sending jobs overseas. Now that could be an interesting number. I read recently (I think linked here at DU?) that last year Haliburton paid 15 million. Now what percentage of their income do you think that is?

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E73%257E1964392,00.html
edited for a better link
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
JoePizz Donating Member (73 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-19-04 04:56 PM
Response to Original message
1. The IRS should be banned from audits that will...
bring in less money than it cost to research and litigate.

Spending $5000 of taxpayer money to go after someone who might end up owing $2500 is stupid.

Spending $1,000,000 on someone who owes $15,000,000 is a good investment.

Oh, wait- wouldn't that mean that most audits would be against wealthy people? Who have more complicated taxes? And are more likely to use loopholes and offshore accounts?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Tim4319 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-19-04 05:03 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. Pretty much!!!!!1
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Tim4319 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-19-04 05:02 PM
Response to Original message
2. I am sorry to hear about what has happened to your mother.
During the "Great" Ronald Reagan era, mother went through a similar ordeal with the IRS, but on a smaller scale. I can understand, somewhat, what you are feeling. It is ashame they are making such a huge deal out of what you mother has in her account but, allow all of these corporations to practically do what they want to do. I hope all goes well with the audit!

Tim
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
MissMarple Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-20-04 03:47 PM
Response to Reply #2
9. Thanks, Tim, but it wasn't MY mom. It was the author's mom.
But thanks anyway. It very well could have been. Our government is becoming a shambles.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
pnb Donating Member (959 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-19-04 05:03 PM
Response to Original message
3. Wouldn't that be profiling?
Picking a certain subset of the population and checking them more for a specific crime?
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
JoePizz Donating Member (73 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-19-04 05:08 PM
Response to Reply #3
6. Sort of
There are 2 ways to look at this:

THE CHRIS MATHEWS WAY- After 9/11 he said only (or primarily) checking Arab men at Airports would be OK, since the hijackers were Middle Eastern. By the same logic, only looking at rich people or corporations for auditing would be OK since most people guilty of large scale tax evasion are wealthy (or corporations).

THE COMMON SENSE WAY- As I said, spending $5000 to get $2500 is simply stupid. All you have to do, though, is set the computers to disallow any tax return and bank account that have descrapancies smaller than a certain amount. In other words, unless there is a huge descrepancy, throw it out and randomly pick another person. Run through the same criteria as above.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
tobius Donating Member (947 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-19-04 06:03 PM
Response to Reply #6
8. and then publicize the number so everybody could keep it below! nt
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
ixion Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-19-04 05:04 PM
Response to Original message
5. 'unusual activity' must mean
that there was money in the account. :eyes:

Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
PragMantisT Donating Member (893 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Feb-19-04 05:24 PM
Response to Original message
7. We only have to worry about the IRS for a couple more years
Didn't Congress waste time in the 90's with a law which will dissolve the IRS in 2006? Oh yeah, as long as there is something else in place to do the pushing and shoving.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Sun Dec 08th 2024, 01:20 AM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Editorials & Other Articles Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC