IRS Sob Story

I'm sure I sound like a broken record, but stories like this, trying to drum up sympathy for the poor understaffed IRS, irritate me to no end.  Their premise that everyone is a tax cheat is completely bogus.  As I have explained on too many occasions, the truth is the exact opposite.  More often than not, people overpay their taxes because of lousy bookkeeping and poor knowledge of tax planning strategies. 

What also fries me is the way they toss around numbers of uncollected taxes from the supposed underground economy.  Such figures are literally pulled out of thin air because an underground economy, by definition, cannot be measured with any accuracy.  Obviously, bigger numbers attract more attention, and who would have the nerve to challenge IRS on them?  I do and have challenged them directly.  A few years ago, during a similar PR campaign trying to generate support for more IRS money and power, I spent a lot of time contacting IRS personnel at their upper levels.  I was trying to track down how they calculated their figures for uncollected taxes.  They finally admitted to me that they had made the numbers up under the premise that, although they couldn't prove the numbers were correct, neither could anyone prove they were wrong.  

I'm not as much disappointed in the IRS for twisting the facts so as to bolster its case as I am with the lazy journalists who willingly accept the IRS's figures without double checking them with independent sources.  Perhaps, they are practicing the admitted CNN policy of intentionally slanting stories in favor of the enemy so as to avoid retribution.       

KMK

- posted by Kerry M. Kerstetter, MBA~CPA~ATP~ATA @ 4/12/2003 12:47:00 PM Send this post: