Posted on 11/14/2007 8:21:03 AM PST by Brilliant
...Internal Revenue Service officials warn that millions of people may face delays in having their returns processed next year and getting billions of dollars in refunds. The problem: Congress still hasn't approved temporary relief for many people from the alternative minimum tax, or AMT...
Some lawmakers predict Congress probably won't take action until next month. If so, that could spell major trouble, Treasury and IRS officials warn. That's because it takes time for the IRS to reprogram its computerized processing systems to reflect last-minute changes made in Congress, says Terry Lemons, an IRS spokesman...
"As we look at the upcoming 2007 filing season, the potential exists for us to see a problem of greater magnitude than anything we have faced in the past," said Linda Stiff, the IRS's acting commissioner. In a recent speech, she warned that the processing of as many as 50 million returns "would be delayed."...
About four million people had higher tax bills for 2006 because of the AMT. That number would jump to about 25 million people for the 2007 tax year if Congress doesn't pass a relief bill...
Congressional delays could affect people who file on paper as well as the growing numbers of people who file electronically. A record 57% of all federal income-tax returns filed earlier this year for the 2006 tax year were zapped electronically to the IRS...
What's more, "millions of other taxpayers not involved in AMT returns may also have their refunds delayed because of the backlog in processing other returns," says Ms. Stiff, the acting IRS commissioner.
"We are worried," says Tom Ochsenschlager, vice president, taxation at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Congress "is really putting the IRS in a box on this issue. That's going to make a lot of taxpayers upset."...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Of course with deficit spending they play with money that not don’t they have it doesn’t even exist. In a perfect world I’d like them to owe me $1 every year, just because I hate writing them a check. Of course the world isn’t perfect, in reality I seem to have a choice of owing them 1 paycheck or having them owe me 2, having gone through bad times in spring under both scenarios I prefer the later.
As long as those EIC filers get their rapid refund checks...I won’t have to worry to much about flying stones.
Private tax preparation sofeware is updated almost daily, sometimes more, during tax season. First thing I do daily is check for updates.
whatever gave you the idea that Americans ‘allowed’ witholding?
It goes back farther than you think - the Civil War! But in recent times, more recent anyway, is FDR and the brainchild of a former Macys dept store head, who noted that installment payments are easier. The amount of money collected that first year went way beyond their projections.
Don't the RATS PROUDLY run Congress?
I guess that answered my question - ‘what made you think the American people “allowed” witholding’? ;) You’re right about the “universal” part, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. In those days, (Civil War) it just wasn’t practicable.
No. I’ll have to dig up the article that I gleaned this from.
The first time witholding was ever used was during the Civil War. The first time taxpayers had to sign “everything is true, under penalty of law” (paraphrased) at the end of their tax return was during the civil war.
The problem (as the government saw it) was that except for a few northeastern states, record keeping and mailing addresses, etc, just weren’t centralized, I imagine. Virtually all the taxes were collected from Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut iirc.
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