The total amount spent on federal tax compliance is about 13 percent of the total HP Corporate Tax Department budget. It is interesting to note that HP’s total costs of local (U.S.) sales and use tax compliance exceed its federal income tax compliance costs.
13 percent of the total HP Corporate Tax Department budget.
Sorry, but a department budget does not include the total costs of loss to business, lobbying that bear upon impact of the income/payroll tax sytem on a business as a whole.
I suggest you get a hold of James L. Payne, Costly Returns: The Burdens of the U.S. Tax System (San Francisco: Institute for Contemporary Studies Press, 1993).
Payne summarizes the estimates of compliance costs that appear in the following studies: Joel Slemrod and Nikki Sorum, "The Compliance Cost of the U.S. Individual Income Tax System," National Tax Journal 37 (December 1984): 462–65; Arthur D. Little, Inc., Development of Methodology for Estimating the Taxpayer Paperwork Burden (Washington, D.C.: Internal Revenue Service, 1988), pp. III–23; James T. Iocozzia and Garrick R. Shear, "Trends in Taxpayer Paperwork Burden," in Internal Revenue Service, Trend Analyses and Related Statistics, 1989 Update (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1989), p. 56; Annual Reports of the commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service; and a variety of other IRS memoranda.
The total amount spent on federal tax compliance is about 13 percent of the total HP Corporate Tax Department budget. It is interesting to note that HP’s total costs of local (U.S.) sales and use tax compliance exceed its federal income tax compliance costs.
that study only goes to the time used to fill out an 1120...
Good catch, YN!
It looks like we will have debates on FTR in the upcoming months. Since we have such a hard time finding people who will even try to defend or represent the current system, I thought that you and/or Willie would be willing to defend your position on a forum other than Free Republic.
We could probably arrange to pay for your travel expenses if you are interested. We recognize that trying to defend this system is the loneliest job in town ... kinda like being the Maytag repairman ... LOL Actually, its probably even worse, because average Americans don't hate the Maytag repairman.
We will provide security and make sure you aren't in any physical danger. We will also attempt to persuade supporters of FTR to remain civil, recognizing that that will be extremely difficult.
Just let me know what dates you might be available and we will take care of the rest.
"HP was #17 on the Fortune 500 that year but the full-time equivalent personnel engaged in federal tax compliance was only 3."
Nice try. The total number of personnel involved in tax return preparation was 3. I didn't see how many people or how much in consulting was spent on tax planning (i. e. tax avoidance).
Also, this paper points out in its first few paragraphs that it is "anecdotal", not a formal study. IOW, a sample of one may or may not be representative.
Here's another anecdotal story. Shortly after Enron's troubles became public, I read a story that Arthur Anderson had billed them somewhere between $50 and 100MM for consulting for the year preceding the discovery of their financial problems. I would be willing to bet that much of that was on tax consulting.
Think $75 MM a year (give or take a few mill) is "chump change"?