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3 Cheers for Congress

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    3 Cheers for Congress

    I know it is pointless to complain, but sometimes I could just bite a nail half in two.

    It was noted that Bush encouraged the IRS NOT to delay refunds. Of course, he doesn't want his Republicans to be blamed for these delays (never mind the fact that he personally threatened to veto one of the proposed bills that Congress had feverishly passed). There is enough blame to go around, though, not just Republicans.

    And this morning, the Congress met for nine seconds. Understand they are STILL in session, and had they absented themselves today, Mr. Bush could have appointed his own temporary congressmen to serve out the year.

    We could talk about politics forever, and this is not the purpose of the message board. But this time, they are messing around in our business. Some release from IRS say not to expect e-refunds before February 28th. Of course, that doesn't stop us from FILING (thank God), but our customers are going to beat us up until their money comes. Many of them begin postponing payment of their utility bills, Christmas purchases, etc. until their money comes. Of course, they do this at their own risk, but WE are at the center of this years' aberration whether we like it or not. Our best course of action is to inform our customers of this mess up front.

    And remember the AMT was another Congressional creation which they didn't have either the foresight or desire to index for inflation. Had this been done, they wouldn't have had this mess this year. For younger readers, I can't make anyone understand the hyper-inflation of the Carter years in the late 70s, some 10%-12% every year, and Congress spending untold billions because people were just getting shoved into higher tax brackets with no indexing. Testimony: I filed Income Averaging (Sch G) for over 50% of my clients for the tax year 1980. Indexing for standard deductions and tax tables was passed in the 1981 tax act. By 1987, Schedule G was discontinued. If all this revisiting of numbers is too lengthy to read, suffice it to say that if the AMT had been indexed from its very beginning, it would apply only to taxpayers with over $1.2 MM today.

    I don't know how to be pro-active about making these clowns responsible. Unless you live in a part of the country I've never seen, your elected representatives (and mine) are NOT voting the same way as their hometown speeches. Maybe I could encourage you to visit vote-smart.org for unbiased voting records on every bill.

    #2
    Doesn't it seem strange...private industry tax software companies can have their tax programs updated for the new AMT rates within days, but it takes IRS seven to ten weeks?

    Comment


      #3
      Great point

      We look at situations like this and then hear people insist that they want to put the Federal Government in charge of our health care...
      "The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectful" - John Kenneth Galbraith

      Comment


        #4
        Must be tough

        to program in those new exemption amounts.

        I was watching a show last night how Nasa is going to junk stores to get rocket stuff from 50 years ago. They are having to reverse engineer to figure out how to make stuff. No one kept any records.

        Comment


          #5
          I am not a computer professional

          but it seems to me that it would be much easier to write software that will crank out a tax return, even including some accuracy checks and other helps for the operator than to write software that will analyze returns for anything wrong including possible fraud and even numbers being too large or small to be realistic given other numbers on the return and other numbers gleaned from other sources. I think we should give the IRS a break here and place the blame on either Congress or the President depending on one's opinion of the bills the President threatened to veto.

          Comment


            #6
            Reprogramming

            The essence of reprogramming itself to accommodate the AMT legislation consists of only two things: Resetting the threshhold, and reverting simple yes or no logic for the credits back to their status for 2006. Nothing more.

            There are collateral activities, such as subroutines where the hierarchy of credits must now be tinkered with, and other subtleties where the AMT may no longer spill over into the tax return. And then there is the e-file protocol, where the software companies may be curtailed from updating until they hear from the IRS.

            It is rational to assume this reprogramming should take no more than a couple days, including testing. Certainly no more than that.

            The IRS is a different story. I think a team of good programmers could accomplish this in just a few days. However, appointments to this "team of good programmers" is driven by agendas other than talent. Criteria for "good" employees is different within the civil service than anywhere else, not to speak of representations of all factions or positions within such a team. This means the good programmers will spend as much time correcting each other as making progress. Then there is the approval process. Most of the approval paperwork goes into someone's FIFO in-box, and will receive attention after the coffee break, vacation day, government holiday, or anything else. After approval, it goes into the in-box of the NEXT approval round.

            In spite of this, there WILL be pressure on these guys to get this done. Not because they care about anything, but if they take too long, then it will make THEIR job more miserable later in the filing year because of everything backing up.

            It may sound like I am "sleeping with the enemy" but there ARE some excellent people working within the IRS. I know some of them, as do many of you. Most of them who try to perform well on their job are very frustrated because the sheer weight of institutionalism stifles their good work.

            Will the IRS beat their end-of-February deadline? I think so. Will they have their machinery ready by the W-2 deadline (Jan 31)? Not a chance.

            Comment


              #7
              I just talked to my Congressman at Bojangles!

              Originally posted by Golden Rocket View Post
              The essence of reprogramming itself to accommodate the AMT legislation consists of only two things: Resetting the threshhold, and reverting simple yes or no logic for the credits back to their status for 2006. Nothing more.

              There are collateral activities, such as subroutines where the hierarchy of credits must now be tinkered with, and other subtleties where the AMT may no longer spill over into the tax return. And then there is the e-file protocol, where the software companies may be curtailed from updating until they hear from the IRS.

              It is rational to assume this reprogramming should take no more than a couple days, including testing. Certainly no more than that.

              The IRS is a different story. I think a team of good programmers could accomplish this in just a few days. However, appointments to this "team of good programmers" is driven by agendas other than talent. Criteria for "good" employees is different within the civil service than anywhere else, not to speak of representations of all factions or positions within such a team. This means the good programmers will spend as much time correcting each other as making progress. Then there is the approval process. Most of the approval paperwork goes into someone's FIFO in-box, and will receive attention after the coffee break, vacation day, government holiday, or anything else. After approval, it goes into the in-box of the NEXT approval round.

              In spite of this, there WILL be pressure on these guys to get this done. Not because they care about anything, but if they take too long, then it will make THEIR job more miserable later in the filing year because of everything backing up.

              It may sound like I am "sleeping with the enemy" but there ARE some excellent people working within the IRS. I know some of them, as do many of you. Most of them who try to perform well on their job are very frustrated because the sheer weight of institutionalism stifles their good work.

              Will the IRS beat their end-of-February deadline? I think so. Will they have their machinery ready by the W-2 deadline (Jan 31)? Not a chance.
              I know that sounds weird, but he lives in the same small town as I do (my former US Senator and the current NC Secretary of State also live in the same subdivision as I do). I specifically asked him why it took so long to come to resolution on the AMT patch. He sais that the House (his branch) did their job and it was up to the Senate to pass something the President would sign. That being said, he also stated that his conversations with high level IRS officials lead him to believe that the 7 week time frame for updates is a CYA maneuver, and that they should be up and running by maybe a week late. I'll keep you posted if I here from him again (maybe he'll stop by McDonald's for lunch?).

              Comment


                #8
                Questions

                So you just bumped into your Congressman.
                Two questions:
                1) Did you shake hands with him?
                2) After he walked away, did you check to be sure you still have all your fingers?
                "The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectful" - John Kenneth Galbraith

                Comment


                  #9
                  Timing

                  I have to agree with Josh in NC. IRS CAN do it in much less time even though they will not work overtime an burn the midnight oil on Constitution avenue.

                  Commerials on televsion around these parts have started full blast again. Most all merely run the ads they filmed in previous years and give the impression that nothing is amiss.

                  But WE know differently.
                  The SHADOW knows!
                  ChEAr$,
                  Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Two answers

                    Originally posted by JohnH View Post
                    So you just bumped into your Congressman.
                    Two questions:
                    1) Did you shake hands with him?
                    2) After he walked away, did you check to be sure you still have all your fingers?
                    Yes, we shook hands. I do have all my fingers.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Bureacrats

                      run the system. They don't like that the congress and the president are constantly changing the rules, especially last minute.

                      I think this is their way of getting payback.

                      Comment

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