I like the way your mind works. LOL

We can't even rein in the EPA, and they're essentially tree huggers. How on earth would you get legislation passed to tamp down the organization charged with collecting the money?

There was a congressman named Hanson some years ago, and he ended up writing a book called, "To Harass Our People". Google him up if you want to see what happens to someone who tries to oppose them!

What you want is not the case.

I would have thought that you could glean the disgust of people by their "horror" stories.

Trust me plusaf, it's not "fun". Sorry to waste your time and bore you.

The Veterans Administration is not any better. I was receiving a pension for my time in the Army during the 60's. For help that was the time of our disagreement with Viet Nam. I found a place to live that was over $1,000/month cheaper so moved there. The difference is that here we cook our own food but can buy it from the kitchen if we want. The other place changed for three meals each day weather you eat them or not. They were supposed to clean our apartments once a week. It took over a year to get them to clean mine.

Then about two months later I stupidly wrote the VA and informed them that I had moved. They immediately dropped my pension without explanation. I tried calling dozens of times but could never get through due to the line always being busy. I wouldn't be surprised if they had just taken the phone off the hook as it were. I wrote innumerable letters asking why with no answer. The last few letters offered my email and phone and all but begged them to contact me and let me know what I had done wrong. They refused to make any attempt to contact me or to write and explain what the problem was.

I contacted my Senators and my Representative and asked for help and they all had people on their staffs whose duty it is to help vets with problems. They sent out a form letter, got no response then advised me to work it out with the VA. That's equivalent to asking a judge to void a death penalty. Still, I went to the closest VA where a lady asked how I got there. I told her I had driven. She jumped out of her chair like an electric shock had gone through it and all but yelled "You can't drive". She then brought in a man so they could double team me. He advised me that I had to have a least two items to qualify for a pension but would not tell me what the items are. Apparently PTSD and a minor wound don't quality. Finally I got help by going to the American Legion and got an unbelievable amount of help and work done for me by them to try and find out what was going on. As of now, we are down to me having to pay them back what they had paid me since I had moved and they stopped my pension. Apparently the VA thinks that the place I moved from was assisted living while the place I have moved is not. The problem is as I see it is the place I moved from is not assisted living but that seems to escape the dolts at the VA pension office. Facts are something to be ignored or denied, not for consideration.

Just a horror story to let you know that the IRS is not the only crooked bureau in the government. Apparently the VA does not agree that they are there to assist veterans. We've all heard about Phoenix and the criminals there and some may know that Texas is under investigation for much the same. Who knows how many more VA offices there are that are doing the same?

A flat tax but with rules that would keep the government from raising the flat tax percentage as much and as often as they wanted to.

Similar, but not the same. We were audited and reported for interrogation as ordered with all of our receipts in hand. As it was, we did not put the mileage on the gasoline receipts we offered as proof of the correctness of the deduction. I made sure that was all the problem there was. I went back out into the car and penciled in milage on every receipt and came back in and again showed them the proof. They found this perfectly acceptable and dropped their complaint. This is the type of bozo we have working for the IRS. Lois Lerner et al are a completely different story as they have committed a crime.

Depends on the religious beliefs of the IRS agent and the sexual inclinations of the couples involved...

:)

Yeah, I was going to try to point that out, but it looked like everyone was having more fun telling horror stories and expressing their disdain and upset...

"Tell me how you're going to measure me and I'll tell you how I'm going to perform."... Old message to management... never acknowledged by them.

If anyone stopped to inquire as to why the things happened, the answers might lead to a driving force that could be modified.

I'd wager that the multiple-letter story was initiated by some spaghetti code that did Exactly What It Was Designed To Do, including print out and mail all of the redundant and irrelevant parts.

Because someone programmed the computer to do so and nobody had any responsibility to go back and correct Stupid Programming Logic Errors.

Heck, why should they?! The additional envelope probably helped some infinitesimal amount to keep some postal employee employed.

The very next year after that happened, I started to send my returns certified to both the feds and the state;.
I remember a lazy cranky old woman behind a post office counter who complained about the extra work, though she used a "it's gonna get there anyway" tack
She was not about to make extra money for her same ole' same ole' paycheck.
Maybe paper returns with just plain stamps are getting lost by lazy Treasury employees who want everyone to go electronic.
I have a way shrewder than me brother than me for a businessman who thinks sending a paper return ten days before April 15 will reduce chances for an audit.

The only way to take that power away is to put the tax code in the constitution, where it can't be tinkered with every year. Even then they might find a way.

In many cases the notices ARE coming from computers with nobody watching them.

My employer, a CPA, now has so many returns get "lost in the mail" that she routinely sends them certified-return-receipt if they can't be e-filed.

The IRS does some unfair things, but in the case of an unintended screw-up like that, the Taxpayer Advocate's office can help you. I'd at least talk to them.

From the IRS' view it makes perfect sense to generate letters like this. They have an automated computer program that looks for "red flags" to complain about on your return and suggest "corrections." If you don't respond, the change goes through and they will collect, with penalties if you don't pay right away.

It would be nice if the burden of proof for these things were pushed back on them. But that's not the system we have now.

My state's tax agency does the same thing, but is wrong more often. And is also much more aggressive about collecting than the feds.

Don't think you won't be affected if you haven't gotten these letters yet. They add new ideas to that program every year. The time to complain is now.

RR. I agree with the flat tax idea. Along with the parties losing the power to punish their enemies. They would lose half their power period. The power to allow tax breaks for some behavior is what keeps their coffers full.
What they spend on is one half of their power the other half is who pays what.

That is classic. He should have called and asked if he could pay it off in installments.

When I owned my camera shop a few doors down was an office supply store owned by my friend. Posted in a frame over the register was a letter from the IRS with the envelope it came in. The letter claimed he still owed 14 cents. The envelope had a pre-paid twenty-three cent bulk mail imprint. Those may not be the exact amounts, it was a long time ago -- but you get the idea that the postage was higher than the amount owed. So idiocy at the IRS is not a new phenomenon.

...and because the government employee's union might not allow pink slips anyway...

they must always demonstrate their incompetence.

So it's incompetent? I HOPE it's incompetent. I
do not want an IRS that is ruthlessly efficient at
robbing us and regulating us to death.

They are soooo efficient there. A coworker was informed they were going to garnish her wages, as her return was wrong, as she was divorced. No she was not. Her adult son in a different town had been divorced the year before, but she and her husband were many years still married. They insisted on the phone that, no, she was divorced. This went on for weeks, before they found someone had really messed up. So, I guess the IRS has the power to divorce and maybe marry as well?

I'm laughing but I shouldn't be. I wonder how many people read your letters and still didn't get it???

Another short example I encountered years ago (beyond the statute of limitations, or I wouldn't post this).
I made an unknowing mistake on a tax return and discovered it 3 years later. The mistake was in my favor and shorted the government a substantial amount of money. I gathered the documents, sent them to the IRS, and asked what I should do. Received a response that my claim was denied as it was too far in the past. I sent another letter saying that perhaps they had misunderstood, and that this was actually not a claim, but a desire to be honest and pay whatever taxes and penalties were due. Got back another letter indicating my claim was denied because the incident was too far in the past.
I have the two letters in my safe awaiting a knock at the door some day.