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:
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
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