Friday, November 8, 2013

WHAT’S THE BUZZ, TELL ME WHAT’S A HAPPENNIN’


Good news from Tuesday’s elections!  The good news is that there was bad news for the dangerous Tea Party.  Moderate Republican Chris Christie won in NJ, and is a prime candidate for Republican Presidential nominee in 2016.  And the Tea Party candidates were beaten in the Virginia gubernatorial race and in the primary runoff election in Alabama's first congressional district.  Let us hope this is the beginning of the end.

* Tax pros – “Why Is There Still an Excessive PTIN Fee?  I ask this question at TAXPRO TODAY.

* One of my posts is referenced in TAXPRO TODAY's weekly "In The Blogs" installment "Scam I Am".

* A heads up for NJ employers and accountants.  PHILLY.COM reports “NJ Voters OK Hourly Minimum Wage Hike to $8.25” –

New Jersey residents on Tuesday approved raising the state's minimum wage by $1, to $8.25 an hour, and to provide for automatic cost-of-living increases as 10 other states already do.

The new hourly minimum will go into effect Jan. 1 under the constitutional amendment that was approved. Cost-of-living adjustments will occur every September.”

* MISSOURI TAXGUY Bruce McFarland’s “Tuesday Tax Talk” video this week dealt with “Income”.  

* And Jamaal Solomon of THE TAX FACTOR also has a video on the tax implications of “Married Life”.

* TIGTA (Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration) continues to find fault at the IRS.  TAX PROF Paul Caron tells us “TIGTA: Tax Returns Prepared Through IRS Volunteer Programs Had 49% Error Rate”.

The IRS VITA program prepares tax returns for free.  I guess you do get what you pay for. 

To be fair, I expect it depends on the individual VITA center.  I am sure some are “more better” than others.

* In “Dog The IRS Bounty Hunter? Private Tax Collectors Are Coming” at FORBES.COM Robert W Wood says that Senator Chuck Grassley wants the IRS to used outside collection agencies, as they had in the past. 

Agencies had been used for 2½ years, but the practice was stopped in March of 2009.  As Robert reports, “The IRS claimed that IRS employees could collect the tax debts cheaper and better than private employees”.

I have always been totally against the use of outside collection agencies when it comes to federal, or state, taxes. 

I posted about the issue in July of 2007 in “Telephone Harassment”.  In it I discussed my reasons for opposing the use of outside agencies –

. . . the IRS, and the various state tax agencies, should not be using private collection agencies, whose only goal is collecting money - whether or not it is really owed - and not fair and equitable tax administration.”

Let us hope the IRS will “just say no” to using outside collection agencies!

TTFN

1 comment:

Chris J said...

At the state level, Pennsylvania and New Jersey have been outsourcing their collection function for many years now, and the results have been less than desirable, all across the board, from what I can tell. New York still has the good sense not to outsource collections.

Practitioners now have to deal with both a collection agency AND the state when the amount owed is under dispute. How is this streamlining government?

---Chris J, EA