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 ...
Why would somebody that’s only making $18G pay hundreds at H&R Block, she should have a pretty simple tax return, probably not worth paying somebody in the first place and definitely not complex enough to cost hundreds. When the IRS picks you for an audit, as opposed to the random audits, it’s a sniff test issue. Too poor for the area and too poor for the method of filing certainly smells funny.
Is that the National Sales TAX, that would dump the income tax?
That would get the illegals and also tax the visitors. I’m for that if it would work. I could decide how much I could afford to pay, by deciding what I would buy and how much I would pay for it.
Normally you have to put in 20% above your base salary if you’re working in the restaurant or some other tipping business.
However, depending on where you work, you may actually not even make that much. But they still tax you on it. And how can you prove what you didn’t make?
Kill the IRS. That is what is destroying our country, and it is what Bambi is going to use to take us down.
Once upon a time, we thought that they’d go after the big fish. But now that Rangel and many of the big fish in the government the big tax cheaters, it’s clearly time to go after the hairdressers.
Haircutter (Cosmetologist), is a profession where tips are frequently more than wages. They had a “gut” feeling she was holding out on them. So now, she has to prove her “innocence”
That’s bassakwards, don’t you think?
Earned Income Credit. It’s not a simple Check Here box any longer.
We seriously need to throw out the federal government and start over. This sh*t is tyranny!
The more “successful” charities are, the worse it makes the govt. bureaucrats looks. They want to keep their cushy jobs.
It would interesting to hear the other side. As far as I’m concerned, the Earned Income Credit is sick and VERY EXPENSIVE for this country. She is not ENTITLED to my tax dollars, regardless of whether she’s supporting those kids or not.
absolutely infuriating. I can’t read any more articles for a while because I don’t think my body could handle any more anger right now. The IRS is scum. I’d love to spend five minutes alone with one of the criminals in charge of this audit.
You need to add the Pissmeoff cherry on top: Joe Illegal claims to be poor with 4 kids and gets $2,500 EITC back for each kid. Joe Illegal gains $10,000!
I tip my barber.
At Super Cuts, Great Clips, etc. the low price hair cutting places. The hair cuts costs around 11 bucks. I usually use a coupon for my kids, but I tip as if I wasn’t using the coupon which usually then amounts to the cost of the haircut without a tip.
Those stylists don’t make much. 15% tip on a dollar hair cut is $1.50. They usually do 2 cuts per hour, with a couple more expensive services during the day.
At a salon that my girls go to, the hair cut is 35 dollars, I’m sure that the salon “cut” is probably 10 bucks of that.
You make not like the law, but it is what it is. Didn't your mama ever teach you that two wrongs don't make a right?
For under $20 grand, with no real property yes it is. H&R only charges $100 for their “best of both worlds” software plus tax agent plan. Either H&R completely ripped her off (not that unusual) or her finances are a lot more complicated than she’s saying.
I’m sure it is. I was so disgusted when I read that the IRS is now going to be focusing on people like her (and like me, because I’m self-employed and pay and even over-pay my taxes, since sometimes I have to enter into exorbitant payment plans with the IRS and other times I have paid with credit cards that I am still paying).
We need a neutral tax such as the Fair Tax that simply taxes what you spend and not what you get. You can control what you spend and there is also a record and nobody can challenge it. On the other hand, a system that taxes income is always hovering over every individual citizen and treats them like sneaks whose real duty was to pay the state but who are hiding $10 here and there.
At the same time, privileged folks (ranging from Cabinet members and Senators to Al Sharpton, who has never paid his penalties but has not gone to jail, either) get to thumb their noses at the whole thing.
Oops, Dad died earlier this year, and guess what did with his things.
You gotta take the cases one at a time. Even a small victory for us taxpayers is better than nothing.
Every time I drop off anything at Goodwill or Salvation army I get a receipe and also keep track of everything donated...They have a sheet that tells you want you can deduct for instance: A dress can be worth 8 to 16 dollars. (Not sure if those numbers are accurate, using them as an example) If you get no receipe, you did not donate as far as the IRS is concerned...
As long as you don't lie on your tax return you should only be dealing in civil penalties.
Make a false claim and you are looking at possible jail time.
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