Give 'em 10 to 15%, file your return on a postcard and tell the feds to make it work.
Why any form at all?
Individual income tax return under the NRST Fair Tax:
| . . . |
Instead of :
Posted on 03/21/2002 3:59:06 AM PST by kattracks
NEW YORK, Mar 21, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- When the notice arrives from the IRS telling you that your business return is about to be audited, of course you're going to panic.
But try to remember three things that should help you feel a little better.
First, accountants and tax attorneys say they've found the IRS, even during audits, to be much more human and easier to deal with than in the past. Second, what the IRS is looking for is a good-faith attempt to comply with tax laws. If you can show you've done that, the audit is unlikely to be the horrific ordeal you're expecting. Third, and most important, you don't have to handle an audit yourself.
It also might help to know what an audit is all about and how you can make the process easier.
Unless one of your employees is an accountant experienced in IRS audits, the best thing you can do is to turn the matter over to a CPA or other tax professional. Yes, that can be expensive, but trying to do it yourself will cost your firm dearly in terms of lost business opportunities and customer relations because you'll be distracted by the audit.
Trying to meet with the IRS on your own could also land you in trouble if you slip and say the wrong thing.
Mickey Ison, managing partner of Bean & Ison, an accounting firm in Memphis, Tenn., recalled a the case of a client who decided to meet with the IRS agent herself. She and her husband had a small farming operation as a sideline, and as she chatted away with the agent, she cheerfully declared, "When my husband gets on that tractor, he just loves it! It's kind of a hobby for him."
That was all the agent needed to hear to decide that the farm was no business, and disallow all the couple's business deductions. When she turned to Ison for help, he was unable to undo the damage.
"Just saying a word can get you into trouble," Ison said.
Soon after you tell your accountant or lawyer that you're being audited, you'll need to sign a power of attorney that allows your representative to discuss your case with the IRS.
After you've done that, "get out of the way and let the representative do his job," said Dale Fashinpaur, a partner with the accounting firm CBIZ Business Solutions in Akron, Ohio.
Ison said the next step for the CPA or lawyer is to call the IRS agent assigned to the case to find out what records and documentation are to be examined during the audit.
"I'll probably go to the client's office to gather up the information that the agent wants, bring it to my office ... and make it as organized as possible," he said.
You might find you never have to meet the IRS agent. Ison said his clients' audits are usually done in his firm's conference room; the agent arrives, starts looking over the client's records and documentation and asks the CPA about any item that needs clarification. How long this process takes depends on the size of the company and the number of items on the return that are being audited.
There are times when it helps for the agent to meet the business owner or visit the business itself. Charles H. Rosenblatt, a CPA in Los Angeles said that "frequently, if they meet the taxpayer and get to know them, it works out well."
Rosenblatt said of a client who was a horse owner, "I brought him along because he knew every horse he had ever owned ... he was really able to impress the IRS agent with his knowledge of the business and that he's not just doing this for fun."
If you do meet with the agent, don't volunteer any information. "Answer their questions, but don't answer more than that," Fashinpaur said.
After the agent is done, he or she will give an assessment to your CPA or lawyer, and in a few weeks to a few months, a preliminary report is issued. Your representative is likely to make suggestions - particularly if the finding is against you - and the agent will discuss the case with a supervisor.
After a final proposal for a settlement is made, you can accept it or appeal it. If the appeal is rejected, the next stop is likely to be tax court - a step that probably makes sense only if a great deal of money or a question of tax law is involved.
The best way to make an audit easier for everyone is to have records that are well-organized and that don't raise further questions.
For example, if the IRS agent wants to see sales orders, be sure they're in numerical order and all there, even the ones that were voided, said Steven Botwinick, a CPA in Rochelle Park, N.J. Missing sales orders or receipts can raise a question of whether the transaction was paid for in cash, and the cash in turn not reported as income.
What if you just tossed out the voided orders? Try to reconstruct the transaction as best as you can and supply a substitute document explaining the circumstances.
Accountants say it's a good idea to be upfront with IRS agents about problems such as missing documents or errors on the return.
"Sometimes, I'll walk in there with an adjustment," Rosenblatt said. "If you give them something right up front, you'll find the audit goes much easier."
Audits generally are less onerous than in the past because the IRS has become more taxpayer friendly, accountants say.
"They're more cooperative and understanding - they do work with you," said Botwinick, the New Jersey CPA.
But it's also true that if you've run your business poorly, or gone beyond the law, you're likely to face penalties.
"If you've taken positions that are beyond what's reasonable ... you have reason to be concerned," said Fashinpaur, the Ohio CPA.
By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG AP Business Writer
Copyright 2002 Associated Press, All rights reserved
For example, "Screw you and the horse you rode in on."
"Screw the IRS."
"Why don't you get a real job?"
In their support, I will agree that the "tax professional" is invaluable for people who can't keep their mouths shut and freely chat with the IRS, such as the woman above who said her husband's tractor was like a hobby.
Seek competent therapeutic help and appropriate medication.
To get the ball rolling and focus Congress Critter's attention:
H.R.2714
Sponsor: Rep Largent, Steve(introduced 8/2/2001)
Title: To terminate the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
A bill to prohibit he imposition of any tax by the Internal Revenue Code: (1) for any taxable year beginning after December 31, 2005.
Kill the income and other related taxes outright, and provide a reasonable replacement:
H.R.2525
SPONSOR: Rep Linder, John (introduced 07/17/2001)
A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national retail sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.
Refer: http://www.fairtax.org & http://www.salestax.org
the modification then enactment and ratification of:
H.J.RES.45
Sponsor: (introduced 4/25/2001)
Latest Major Action: 5/9/2001 Referred to House subcommitte.
Title: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to abolishing personal income, estate, and gift taxes and prohibiting the Untied States Government from engaging in the business in competition with its citizens.
(Modified to prohibit all income, payroll, gift estate taxes as HR2525 calls for, or we will see European VAT style hidden taxes along with payroll excises to take over in the place of the of the current individual income tax(i.e. personal income tax) that Ron Paul amendment prohibits.)
And to keep em reminded that there is indeed a Constitution to pay attention to:
H.R.175
Sponsor: (introduced 1/3/2001)
Latest Major Action: 2/12/2001 Referred to House subcommittee
Title: To require Congress to specify the source of authority under the United States Constitution for the enactment of laws, and for other purposes.
Give 'em 10 to 15%, file your return on a postcard and tell the feds to make it work.
Why any form at all?
Individual income tax return under the NRST Fair Tax:
| . . . |
Instead of :
To your response, I will say, Hahahahaha hahahahaha hahahahah hahahaha hahahhahaha hahaha hahahhaha hhahahaha hhahaha hahahah hahahahh.
..."If you're honest you have no worries"....hello---hello---the IRS tax code is a monster that even all of their employees can't agree on. A number of years ago, there was somebody/someone/some entity that had something like 20 different tax preparers use the same bit of information about a bogus client......they came up with 20 different answers--and if memory serves me right, the IRS had even yet another answer!!! So, dear honest citizen.....which one of those answers is 'the honest one"--the one you don't have to worry about? Hmmmmm....enlighten us all, Mr./Mrs. New business owner.
If you want a favor, hire a CPA to look over your record-keeping and do an audit...at least he won't bite!
ONE MORE TIME:
IT’S ABOUT P O W E R AND C O N T R O L!!
CHECK OUT HTTP://WWW.SALESTAX.ORG to find out how you can help!
If you're honest you have no worries.
Sure, and I've got some nice ocean front property in Southwest Colorado to sell ya!! (well is was a million years ago.)
Plunder Patrol
by Robert W. Lee, New American April 18 '94Selective Enforcement
Writing in The Freeman for March 1994, tax analyst James Payne observed that to function efficiently, a tax system needs citizen cooperation, but in "the United States, high tax rates and the impossibly complex tax code have made tax evasion and avoidance a major industry." Since the tax laws are so complex, virtually everyone can be branded a tax violator at the whim of the IRS. As an IRS memorandum quoted in the March 1980 Saturday Review explained, "Agents should be able to discover errors in 99.9 percent of all returns if they want."
***
Counting the Cost
"Tax analyst James Payne pinpoints more than 30 separate burdens which the current tax system imposes on individuals, businesses, and society as a whole, including the costs of compliance and enforcement."
"When the visible and hidden costs associated with tax collection (the vast majority of which have been piled without remuneration onto the private sector) are totaled up, Payne estimates that it costs 65 cents to collect every $1.00 in taxes. For fiscal 1992, that expense would be more than $622 billion, making tax collection the most expensive of all government programs (more than double the defense budget and nearly five times the expenditures on Medicare). "
Purpose of Income Tax:
Whether or not you as an individual pay an Individual Income Tax is irrelavent to the statutes regarding it. The Income Tax is not for the aquisition of revenue, as many other forms of taxation will do equally as well if not better at that job. The Income Tax exists for one overwhelming purpose and that is to maintain the populace in a constant state of legal jeopardy. It is a political tool for
molding the electorate into opposing factions,
rewarding political friends through targeted exceptions and credits
punishing political enemies through punitive tax rates and expensive legal harrassments; and
hiding the full cost of government from the perceptions of the electorate.
As such, a particular individual may not pay tax or even need to file a return. Even at nil tax rates on the individual income tax, The legal jeopardy remains in place to be imposed at political whim.
Until the statutes are repealed, and the income tax outlawed by Constitutional Amendment, the income tax will remain to be used for its true intents which have nothing to do with gathering revenue for the federal government. The Tax Protest movement does nothing but poor fuel on the fire where building that legal jeopardy and maintaining the income tax is concerned, and provide targets for rationalizing ever more punitive actions and statutory provisions.
A man who had been called to testify at the Internal Revenue Service asked his accountant for advice on what to wear. "Wear your shabbiest clothing. Let him think you are a pauper," the accountant replied.
Then he asked his lawyer the same question, but got the opposite advice. "Don't let them intimidate you. Wear your most elegant suit and tie."
Confused, the man went to his priest, told him of the conflicting advice, and requested some resolution on the dilemma. "Let me tell you a story," replied the priest. "A woman, about to be married, asked her mother what to wear on her wedding night. 'Wear a heavy, long, flannel nightgown that goes right up to your neck. But when she asked her best friend, she got conflicting advice. 'Wear your most sexy negligee, with a V-neck right down to your navel.'"
Confused, the man asked, "What does all this have to do with my problem with the IRS?"
"Simple," replied the Priest. "It doesn't matter what you wear, you're going to get screwed."
We find out what the agent is looking for, organize it all in a nice neat binder, give it to the client to give to the agent. If the agent asks any questions, the client is to write them down and get back to the agent.
The theory is that the agent will think this client has their ducks in a row, there must be easier prey somewhere else.
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