April 2006 - cypherpunks-legacy

Green Tea and Weight Loss
by Kieth 18 Apr '06

18 Apr '06

! churchgoer , propel the gneiss but parkway not collarbone

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jackpots over 1 million
by Lottie Bender 18 Apr '06

18 Apr '06

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Pre-approved Application #oanwrtL822439
by Vernon Schmidt 18 Apr '06

18 Apr '06

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My Friend, You are in Trouble
by Terry Mcintosh 17 Apr '06

17 Apr '06

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As Seen On CBS 60 Minutes: Hoodia Gordoni
by Forrest Lindsay 17 Apr '06

17 Apr '06

or contemporary try kuwait in basal the bindle ! demystify

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Fwd: A totally new way to enjoy SEX!
by Dana Russo 16 Apr '06

16 Apr '06

a magical creature while the rumors aren't entirely clear, it is probably not a As individuals, the age of technology affects each person in With respect to the affects of technology on society, we have people who think they know what s best perhaps while the restyour car's dashboard lighter socket, standard interfaces that

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Notification: Loww ratess
by Sonya Woody 16 Apr '06

16 Apr '06

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Ratess will skyrocket soon
by Ernie Betts 16 Apr '06

16 Apr '06

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[Clips] Letting the IRS Do Your Taxes for You
by R.A. Hettinga 16 Apr '06

16 Apr '06

--- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: rah(a)shipwright.com Delivered-To: clips(a)philodox.com Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 10:34:31 -0400 To: Philodox Clips List <clips(a)philodox.com> From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah(a)shipwright.com> Subject: [Clips] Letting the IRS Do Your Taxes for You Reply-To: rah(a)philodox.com Sender: clips-bounces(a)philodox.com <http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB114489444487224827.html> The Wall Street Journal THE AUTOMATIC 1040 The IRS might be able to fill out your return for you, based on the information it gets from other parties and past data it has on file, such as: * Your W-2 form, which includes all your wages and withheld taxes. * Your 1099 forms, which include dividends and interest from investments, bank accounts and other sources, as well as outside income. * Your 1098 form, which reports mortgage interest paid. * Your previous tax return, which includes marital status and number of dependents. Letting the IRS Do Your Taxes for You Agency Has Enough Data To Fill Out Many Returns; Tax Preparers Resist Proposal By ROBERT GUY MATTHEWS April 13, 2006; Page D1 Imagine that filing your tax return was as simple as receiving a completed form from the Internal Revenue Service, signing it, then waiting for a refund or writing a check. It isn't so far-fetched. For many of the taxpayers scrambling to meet next week's filing deadline, the IRS already has most of the data it needs on file. Since employers and banks and other financial institutions send information on earnings, interest income, dividends and mortgage interest directly to the agency, some academics and economists say the IRS should go ahead and perform the role of tax preparer -- and save many people a significant amount of time and money. A number of tax-preparation companies dispute the idea's validity and are fighting against it, as is the Bush administration, which has also expressed concern about the cost of such a program. Last year, California launched a pilot program in which it filled out state-tax returns for about 11,500 residents. It plans to duplicate the program this year for 2005 tax returns. Taking the idea national would obviously be more costly and complicated, and nobody is saying that the IRS could fill out the 130 million returns filed every year. Rather, proponents say, the government should focus on people with the simplest returns, such as single filers who don't itemize and haven't had a change in jobs or in the number of dependents from the previous year. The IRS, in those cases, would essentially plug in the numbers -- such as wages, annual interest from checking accounts, and dividends -- that it gets from employers, banks and other sources, and tabulate the results. The taxpayers would get their IRS-calculated returns in the mail and either agree with the result or redo it themselves, perhaps with the help of a commercial tax preparer. "The idea is to reduce the burden on taxpayers," says Joseph Bankman, a professor of law and business at Stanford Law School. As appealing as the idea may sound, taxpayers shouldn't expect any such change soon, due to a host of technical and political challenges. "This is something that sounds pretty easy and obvious on the surface," says Charles Rossotti, who studied the issue when he was IRS commissioner from 1997 to 2002. "But there are some very significant practical problems that rule it out." For one thing, he says, the IRS doesn't currently have the manpower or computer power to quickly handle and tabulate the reams of financial information from employers, banks and brokers in a timely way. That means potential refunds could be delayed. For example, individual taxpayers usually get W-2 forms, on which employers report wages and withheld taxes, in January, but the IRS doesn't get the forms until February. Similarly, taxpayers generally can get their 1099 information from financial institutions as early as January, but the IRS often gets 1099s as late as August. Even for the simplest of returns, documents from employers, banks and other financial institutions would have to arrive at the IRS well before the end of tax season around April 15. Mr. Bankman says the technical hurdles aren't insurmountable. Two economists, Peter Orszag of the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C., think tank, and Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economics professor, are studying how to make it easier for the government to prepare tax returns by using information technology. They plan to publish their findings later this year as part of the Brookings-affiliated Hamilton Project, which aims to develop and promote new economic-policy ideas. The California pilot project, called "Ready Return," cost about $211,000 to run last year, and involved returns for only 11,500 people. Any federal experiment is sure to cost millions of dollars. IRS Commissioner Mark Everson says he'd rather spend any extra money on hiring more auditors and investigators to beef up enforcement. He also says that if the IRS missed some taxpayer income, there wouldn't be any incentive for the individual to supply the information. "I think it leads to the thinking 'If government already fills out some of my tax return, why should I fill out additional lines?' " says Mr. Everson. Mr. Everson's boss, Treasury Secretary John Snow, also strongly opposes IRS involvement in tax preparation, which he says would be a conflict of interest. "We aren't tax-preparation people," he told Congress earlier this month. "We're not software-development people. There is a private market out there that does that and does it well." Commercial tax preparers, worried they would lose business if the IRS moves starts filling out tax returns, also are determined to block the idea. They argue that the government doesn't have an incentive to make sure taxpayers get every tax break to which they're legally entitled. "The issue is whether it's cost-effective for the tax system and good for taxpayers," says Linda McDougall, a spokeswoman for H&R Block Inc., the nation's largest tax preparer. Intuit Inc., maker of the popular software TurboTax, has vigorously fought California's pilot program. Along with H&R Block, it successfully sued to stop a similar program from going into effect in the state in 1999. Steve Westly, chief financial officer and controller for California, says that this year's program might be derailed as well -- largely because of lobbying by the commercial tax preparers. State legislators are currently considering competing bills; one would torpedo the program, the other would expand it. Nevertheless, Mr. Westly is moving forward with the program, which will be offered to 50,000 taxpayers. To be eligible, taxpayers must be single without dependents and have had only one job last year. They also must not have earned any interest on a checking account or other investment last year. He says that 20% of tax-paying Californians fit those requirements. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' _______________________________________________ Clips mailing list Clips(a)philodox.com http://www.philodox.com/mailman/listinfo/clips --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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by Bennie Ames 16 Apr '06

16 Apr '06

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