Posted on 03/28/2007 12:16:13 PM PDT by JZelle
Are you absolutely sure you paid the exact amount of income tax you owed last year -- not too much and not too little? I am willing to bet the vast majority of those reading this paid either too much or too little -- not because they intended to but because the tax code is so complex it is almost impossible to know precisely the right number. As Americans sit down to file their taxes before the April 17 deadline, most will feel some anxiety and many will feel trapped. It is not only the taxpayer who is trapped, but also the Internal Revenue Service folks and even the political class that created the mess.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Anyone who doesn't use a software tax program these days is only asking for problems. Put the correct information in, and you won't overpay or underpay. I've used tax programs since they first appeared, and I have never been audited. Even after I spoke against the Clintons!
Actually, the IRS employees not being able to understand the tax code is something have from direct experience.
I filed a tax return on which I claimed a foreign tax credit of under $200 on the basis of a distribution from an estate. I then got a letter demanding that I file a Form 1116. The instructions for Form 1116 explicitly state that the foreign tax credit can be claimed without filing the form if all foreign income passive (check), the foreign taxes paid are reported on . . .Schedule K-1 Form 1041,. . . (check), and were less than $300 (or $600 if married and filing jointly) (check).
Plainly some IRS bureaucrats can't even read and understand the instructions to their own forms, much less the whole tax code.
I do mine entirely by hand, and I've never been audited.
There is no such thing as a perfect tax return, so no software package can prepare such.
The tax laws are not black and white if you have any sort of complexity to your investments.
Every year Money magazine has 50 tax preparers work on the indentical information and gets back 50 different answers. And most of those tax preparers use software much more expensive than TurboTax, TaxCut, etc.
that's ok...you are still on the list....you got next
So do I. I file for an LLC, an individual, and a partnership. I have still never been audited, perfect return or not. They are not that difficult. Call any IRS agent, CPA or tax attorney and you will get different answers all the time. The system is based on trust. While many people cheat, using all the legal loopholes and advantages will not cause a defective return.
By the same token, there are supposed to be a certain number of random audits, so it wouldn't matter if the return was perfect or not. You might avoid a flag-based audit, but still get hit by a random audit.
I don't worry about. Much.
Come on, let's change to the Fair Tax, and never again dread April 15.
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