Posted on 12/24/2009 2:04:51 PM PST by Delacon
Here are a few stories to bring holiday cheer for taxpayers. First, we have an Associated Press report that several hundred thousand federal bureaucrats have serious tax delinquencies. The Department of Housing and Urban Development always ranks high on the list of government entities that should be abolished, so it’s interesting to see that HUD bureaucrats are most likely to be dodging their taxes:
More than 276,000 federal employees and retirees owed back income taxes as of Sept. 30, 2008, according to data from the Internal Revenue Service. The $3.04 billion owed was up from $2.7 billion owed by federal employees and retirees in 2007. Among cabinet agencies, the Department of Housing and Urban Development had the highest delinquency rate, at just over 4 percent.
This rampant nonpayment is especially outrageous since federal bureaucrats “earn” twice as much compensation, on average, as those of us laboring in the productive sector of the economy. One might think they would go out of their way to comply since their bloated salaries come from tax collections. Speaking of outrage, the internal watchdogs at the Treasury have just published a report showing that it is almost impossible to verify eligibility for the special interest tax breaks in the so-called stimulus. As Investor’s Business Daily opines, this is an invitation to fraud:
A new report from the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration counts 56 tax provisions in the bill having a potential cost of $325 billion. Of those, 20 are tax breaks for individuals and 36 are for businesses. The problem, the Inspector General says, is the IRS can’t verify taxpayer eligibility “for the majority of Recovery Act tax benefits and credits.” For individual taxpayers, 13 of the 20 benefits and credits can’t be verified; for businesses, it’s 26 of 36. …To suggest, as Treasury does, that the biggest chunk of the $325 billion in stimulus package tax breaks can’t be adequately followed violates the pledges of openness and fairness made when the stimulus was passed last February. As the government-stimulus-oversight Web site, recovery.gov, notes, last year’s package “requires that taxpayer dollars spent under the Act be subject to unprecedented accountability.” We wouldn’t call being unable to verify upwards of two-thirds of the $325 billion handed out as “unprecedented accountability.” Sounds more like an invitation to fraud, all at the expense of the taxpayers.
To be fair, even a competent government agency might have trouble making a bad law work, and the $787 boondoggle was rushed through the legislative process with very little — if any — attention paid to anything other than funneling other people’s money to special interest groups. That being said, the IRS has trouble even with routine tasks. According to another IG report, the agency has a staggering 70 percent error rate in its processing of taxpayer identification numbers for individual taxpayers:
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) today publicly released its review of the IRS’s processing of applications for Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs). TIGTA reviewed a sample of ITIN applications and found that almost 70% contained significant errors and/or raised concerns that should have prevented the issuance of an ITIN. The IRS estimates that it has issued more than 14 million ITINs as of December 2008. ITINs are intended to provide tax identification numbers to resident and nonresident alien individuals who may have U.S. tax reporting or filing obligations but do not qualify for Social Security Numbers, which generally are only issued to U.S. citizens and individuals legally admitted to the U.S. …”The number of individual income tax returns filed using ITINs and reporting wage income has increased by 247 percent from 2001 to 2008,” commented J. Russell George, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. “If the IRS continues to issue ITINs without proper verification, the risk of fraudulently filed returns – along with fraudulently claimed refunds – will continue to rise,” added Inspector General George.
Just think how much fun it will be when the IRS is in charge of determining those of us who should get fined or jailed for noncompliance with government-run healthcare! No wonder so many taxpayers put a flat tax or national sales tax on their Christmas lists.
To All My Liberal Friends:
Please accept with no obligation, implied or explicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.
To All My Conservative Friends:
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR! From Delacon
Hat tip Andy McCarthy on The Corner
ping
It’ll take a couple of Cosmo’s to finger that one out ... wait ... just had one ... off to another ....
It is so patently obvious that there are two standards for IRS regulations. Those that apply to government bureaucrats and members of Congress those that apply to the rest of us. If any of us had dared to do what Charlie Rangle, Tim Geitner or Tom Daschle did with their taxes we would living on the streets because the IRS seized our home and other assets or be in a federal prison.
How true it is.
Cosmopolitan Cocktail recipe
Scale ingredients to servings
1 oz vodka
1/2 oz triple sec
1/2 oz Rose’s® lime juice
1/2 oz cranberry juice
Shake vodka, triple sec, lime and cranberry juice vigorously in a shaker with ice. Strain into a martini glass, garnish with a lime wedge on the rim, and serve.
rating
9.2
2047 votes
When my girlfriends come over we just dump the stuff in a large tupperware container, shake it like crazy and enjoy ... no need to measure, just make sure there’s more vodka than triple sec ...LOL
Oh, that will be easy. They'll just round up everyone and let out the ones that buy insurance or pay the fine. In essence, you get bonded out ;-)
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