Posted on 12/06/2009 12:48:00 PM PST by Publius
Rachel Porcaro knows she's hardly rich. When you're a single mom making 10 bucks an hour, you don't need government experts to tell you how broke you are.
But that's what happened. The government not only told Porcaro she was poor. They said she was too poor to make it in Seattle.
It all started a year ago, when Porcaro, a 32-year-old mom with two boys, was summoned to the Seattle office of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). She had been flagged for an audit.
She couldn't believe it. She made $18,992 the previous year cutting hair at Supercuts. A few hundred of that she spent to have her taxes prepared by H&R Block.
"I asked the IRS lady straight upfront — 'I don't have anything, why are you auditing me?' " Porcaro recalled. "I said, 'Why me, when I don't own a home, a business, a car?' "
The answer stunned both Porcaro and the private tax specialist her dad had gotten to help her.
"They showed us a spreadsheet of incomes in the Seattle area," says Dante Driver, an accountant at Seattle's G.A. Michael and Co. "The auditor said, 'You made eighteen thousand, and our data show a family of three needs at least thirty-six thousand to get by in Seattle."
"They thought she must have unreported income. That she was hiding something. Basically they were auditing her for not making enough money."
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
The FAIR TAX would eliminate this vermin riddled agency.
Oh, but wait, that would mean the politicians and Washington insiders couldn’t reward their friends and punish their enemies with a Byzantine 10,000 page tax code not even TurboTax Timmy understands.
Several years ago, a friend who is a nationally published investigative journalist invited me to go along to his Atlanta interview of two female IRS whistleblowers.
Among serious allegations of MAJOR sexual harassment by male superiors – who were routinely promoted to higher positions and/or transferred in order to display their genitals to NEW female subordinates – we were told of the “Dialing for Dollars” program then – and apparently STILL – a routine practice.
Any agent behind in his/her “collections QUOTAS” (which we’ve been assured by IRS do NOT exist) would rummage their “inventory” (their quaint name for taxpayers in their grasp – er – jurisdiction) for lower middle income individuals with foreign or Hispanic surnames. The agent would phone these individuals, advising them that errors in their returns indicated that they STILL owed the IRS money. The amounts were kept at or under $500.00 on the basis that it would cost the taxpayer considerably more in funds and/or time away from a low to moderate income job to contest it.
In 9 cases out of 10, the taxpayer meekly sent a check just as the “massa” in Washington has conditioned us to do.
Is this a great country or what???
Mine does! And the states profile businesses and workers as to how much money they earn based on hours and square feet of business.
I was audited once and the lady was a true jerk. She brought up something which had not been on the original audit. Of course I didn’t have the records so she told me to bring them in the next time she came to the office which was a month.
A couple of weeks later I got a notice that I owed several hundred dollars totally out of the blue. I appealed to IRS appeals and the girl there agreed with me and dismissed it. Then a few weeks later, her supervisor overruled her and put it back in.
I appealed to court and was going to represent myself. The day before court, the assistant U.S. Attorney phoned me and asked a few questions. He then told me he would have the case dismissed and he did.
On the other hand my pastor was audited by another lady and he said she was nice as could be and ended up giving him a nice refund.
The whole damned system is rotten!
She’s legal or she wouldn’t be paying taxes. Obama will attack anybody who is paying their way and not on welfare.
The IRS announced this year that it is going to be “looking at” lower income earners, particularly self-employed people or people in businesses such as the hospitality industry, services, etc. who the IRS thinks may be “sheltering” a couple of thousand dollars. The cost of the audit is going to reduce these people to bankruptcy.
Self-employed workers (which accounts for many people who work in beauty shops and such because they rent a chair and are indepedent contractors) are going to be ground into the dust.
I assume you probably have a good, regular job or government income (SS, etc.) and you don’t need to concern yourself with reality.
I’ve had two “run-ins” with the IRS.
(1) First one when I went public whistle blowing on a company doing vile and should be illegal, acts. All of a sudden, my husband and I were on the IRS audit radar. Their mistake was so stupid, I cleared it up in one minute when I finally got through to them.
(2) Was during my divorce. I was a stay-at-home mom and had “nothing” but child support. My husband was supposed to file jointly with me, he was court-ordered, but he defied the court as usual, and filed on his own as “head of household”.
When I got a job and then was laid off at the start of the “obama” job creation age, I had to cash in my 401K and after filing an extension, I was hit with late penalties. I asked the IRS agent if there was a way to defer the late penalties considering I had lost my job, and the agent said something to put politely, that was “jerky”. I figured why fight it and paid their late penalties.
You will not doubt soon be receiving hate mail from pond scum all over the country expressing resentment at the comparison.
Really, genuinely not trying to be a jerk when I say that she almost definitely did not report her tips. Her salary could not cover two kids without outside aid, except she’s likely making 20% more than she is reporting. Still not a lot, and the IRS definitely has bigger fish to fry (Geithner, Rangel), but these are the sort of things that draw IRS fire.
The Chicago way, dontcha know
My all time favorite democrat crook is the despicable Rahm Emanuel, who lives in a tax free magnificent Chicago mansion owned by (I kid you not) "The Rahm Emanuel Foundation."
Rahm Emanuel's comment to the suffering single mom and IRS victim Rachel Porcaro:
Outrageous!!!
I’d hate to think the IRS could hang my ass due to statistical interpretations and assumptions, in the absence of any real evidence.....
so they can go after tax-payers and demand receipts, but the ones working under the table that are illegal immigrants, use fake or stolen SS numbers, they don’t do squat about.
Since the FCC has said this word is okay to use on public airwaves now, i’ll say it. WHAT AN ARSE!
Hopefully the publicity will take this tax agent down. I couldn't live with myself it this is what was required of me on the job.
They want you to give it to charity but not claim it. That’s their description of doing your part. Sort of redistribution like don’t you think?
The thing that killed me was I owned two houses, though I drew no income from either property. I have mega bucks in sheltered retirement accounts, I got out of the market early and went all cash, and I was below retirement age, marginally.
If I moved one or more of my properties into an irrevocable trust I would have qualified and I could eat steak and lobster.
I know a girl who cuts about 20 men's hair daily, five days a week.
She gets $2-$3 tip per haircut on average.
So figure there's 261 work days during the calendar year, since she's full time.
Multiply 261 days x 20 haircuts x $2.50 for each tip and you'll come up with more than $13,000 in tips annually.
When you add $13K to the $19K this woman reported, she'd be over $30K annually easily.
YES!!! And why don’t they prodecute tax cheat Charlie Rangel? Why hasn’t Michael Steele been all over this?
We do not need an IRS. It is not a necessary operation. Just get a sales tax or similar and leave the lower middle,middle middle and upper poor level alone. Note how the DEMS get off! Hello New Yorkers.
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