A sincere apology from the IRS
Filed under: Tax
How would you feel about the IRS if they apologized to you and sent you money to make up for all your troubles? Plenty of people I know would love it! They've been battered by the IRS, sometimes not because of their own errors. Other times, they have made mistakes but the IRS made it incredibly difficult to correct the problems, even when the right documentation and explanation was offered up. I've worked with some really nice, competent and efficient employees of the IRS. But there are times when I end up feeling terribly burdened by an undereducated employee or one who has much pent up anger.
In the National Taxpayer Advocate's 2007 Annual Report to Congress, a suggestion is made that the Congress should authorize the IRS to give money to taxpayers when "... the action or inaction of the IRS has caused excessive expense or undue burden to the taxpayer, and the taxpayer meets the IRC § 7811 definition of significant hardship."
It is suggested that taxpayers should be eligible to receive between $100 and $1,000 if they fall under these guidelines. And the key? These payments would not be taxable!!!! Hooray. I doubt this will ever happen, but the more I think about it, the more I believe it's a really good idea!
Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-26-2008 @ 2:34PM
Tracy Coenen said...
I'll have to respectfully disagree with you. None of this was the fault of the IRS. You didn't file the right form and the IRS did exactly the right thing with the information they had. I'm not exactly a friend of the IRS, but I do have to defend them when they follow the tax rules... which it appears they did here.
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1-29-2008 @ 5:32AM
C Riley said...
I got married in '92 and had to drag my now ex-husband
to the CPA to file a joint return in '93. In short order, we heard from the IRS that he hadn't filed taxes for 3
years. When I called and spoke to an agent, I told him
that I didn't know about this as we had just been married in June of '92. He said we had to pay in full or make payments which I did. I was never told about the innocent spouce rule and didn't find out about it till last year! Talk about frosting your cake! Anybody for another Boston Tea Party? Just substitute the IRS and
politicians for the tea bags!
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1-29-2008 @ 9:21AM
Barouches said...
The IRS has no legal right to take any taxes. The law they claim gives them the right was never radified by the states. It is STILL unconstitutional. However they will drag you through the legal system until you reach the Federal Supreme court and THEN they say, "oh yeah, we know it's not the law...you can go free now."
In the USA Today newspaper there was a full page ad offering $50,000 to the first person providing the law allowing the IRS to tax wages. That $50,000 has never been claimed.
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2-05-2008 @ 10:55AM
KJ said...
Don't be too hard on the IRS.
It's good in its place.... but it hasn't been dug yet
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2-24-2008 @ 7:53AM
olyirish said...
Barouches said...
The IRS has no legal right to take any taxes. The law they claim gives them the right was never radified by the states. It is STILL unconstitutional
First off, states ratify the Constitution and the amendments, not laws. Second, in the Constitution, Article 1, sections 2 and 7 give congress the right to levy taxes.
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3-07-2008 @ 9:23AM
Prof Shah said...
Don't be too hard on IRS. I am filing my taxes from last 10 years and never had any issue. Last year i made mistake and over pay them as panelty due to software error and they send me back. Once i received i did recalcuate with other software and that that point i was even able to findout that i over paid them.
In the past I had lost in stock as company filed chapter 11 so I put the lost on return and they asked if I have any evidence and I had it as exodus communication sent me the letter of chapter 11 and I had receipt from TD Water house on how much i spend on stock which i consider it no big deal even if we consider it as Audit.
But other then that I believe that if you don't screw up then you will not get audit as there is very few percentage of people they audit and they don't have time going after each of us or sometime it's not worth of spending that time.
But do file it , try to file it right and on time. Creating a good history with IRS always helps now and down the road like creating good credit history.
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3-16-2008 @ 1:39PM
SL said...
I don't know a whole lot about the IRS and it's workings, nor have I ever wanted to read any part of the Internal Revenue Code. However, I haven't had many problems with them. The only thing that has happened was I moved and a bill was sent to my old address. I didn't receive word about taxes I owed until some time and got penalized for it. I wrote and requested to have the penalty waived because I hadn't received the information. I had a very good experience and they waived my fee with no problem.
I understand that there are people that have had nightmare experiences with the IRS and taxes. I do feel sorry for anyone that has been dragged though the system and feel that an apology from the IRS would be great! I'm just glad that I can walk out my door and down the street if I please. I can choose what job I want and what church I want to go to. If I don’t like my doctor I can go see another (at least for now.) This country might have some financial woes and some of the organizations may be/seem corrupt, but GOD BLESS AMERICA.
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4-16-2008 @ 6:47PM
JC said...
Beware the IRS. I love America and the freedoms we have, but.........the IRS is so out of control it is sickening. I used to own a business growing quickly, got behind in employee taxes and when I tried to make a payment plan to catch up I was turned over to the collection side of the IRS. They ran me around, lied to me, when I hired a legal/CPA firm to help me the IRS stopped talking, showed up with a fleet of tow trucks and tried to close my business. The legal firm said the IRS would no return any calls or work with them at all. I was forced into BK and after paying 3 years of a 5 year plan found out the IRS had been charging additional penalties and interest outside of the plan, and when I complained to the US Bankruptsy court I was told there was nothing they could do. I was forced to sell my home and business to pay off a debt that was not even legitimate. Also found out that the reason the IRS is so dispicable in thier actions is that agents are paid a 35% bounty on what they collect. They also sold my $35,000.00 sailboat I saved for years to buy and sold it to a friend of the agents for $3100.00. Do not trust the IRS, they are NOT on your side!!!
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6-08-2008 @ 2:16PM
anna niziol said...
we are temporarily living in Europe, but filing the taxes in USA. We are always reporting the bank interest in 8a colomn,but we received a note from bank that we were classified as an underreporters of interest and we were imposed to a backup witholding of 28% to IRS. We are retired people living only on our Social Security. We wrote many letters to Chief collection branch IRS sending also copies of our tax returns, asking politely for telephone number, providing our telephone numbers, address and E-mail, nothing happened, no answer from IRS, bank is taking 28% from our bank accounts and sending it to IRS. IRS is ignoring us. What else we can do?? Also will we receive our stimulus? Thank you for the reply. Anna.
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7-02-2008 @ 1:22AM
EdPetersen said...
I live and work in the US Virgin Islands. I've always lived and worked in the VI. I pay taxes to the local bureau of Internal Revenue. Somehow the Internal Revenue Service (in Philadelphia) decided I owe taxes from 10 years ago when I worked in DC on a 6 month assignment and proceeded to levy my wages and clean out my accounts. I have called over forty times. They have agreed with me over forty times that they made an error. Each time I've called its the same old opera musak and a different person. After I repeat for the tenth time in the convo that I DON"T LIVE IN THE US they put me on hold at least three times while they "check on something". Then they come back and sy...."But you shouldnt be paying us...you are considered international." They even hooked me up with an advocate because....I dont live or work in the United States Mainland and am exempt from Federal taxes. I pay only state taxes as it were. (I also cant vote for the president). Long story short...it's been years and thousands of dollars garnished and they still haven't managed to return a penny. If I owed THEM that much money I'd be in a cell. They have been very professional in speaking to me, but they are really not on the ball, don't know their own rules and cannot their own errors for some reason.....I suppose it would be admitting that they CAN make an error which is not a precedent they want to set or admit to. All I know is they have 48 thousand dollars that belongs to me....and that doesn't include interest.
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2-11-2008 @ 4:24PM
Airwolf said...
The IRS has become an entity, A God as it were.
The IRS makes decesions based on ONE persons judgement and they can do any thing they want and answer to no one!!!!
The IRS is running amouck and Congress (HAHAHAHA) Needs to make laws to protect americans form the Gestapo like tactacts of the IRS.
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