IRS Accuracy Rates Slipping On Questions Of Tax Law

[Phaedrus]

by Mike Godfrey
Tax-News.com

IRS Chief Mark W. Everson admitted on Tuesday that around one-quarter of enquiries concerning tax law made to the agency’s telephone help lines may be being answered incorrectly.

Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, Everson revealed that the accuracy rate for responses to questions posed to call center employees on the Revenue’s toll-free help line has fallen to 75.79% in the first months of 2004. This compares to a rate of 84% for 2003.

Blaming incomplete research and incorrect application of the tax law for the falling standards, Everson told the committee that the IRS is planning ‘Quality Review Improvement Teams' to identify and prioritise the areas of concern.

Everson told reporters after the hearing that the scripts given to IRS workers were a large contributory factor in the decline in accurate answers, and also blamed changes in staffing levels and a management restructure.

 

[Phaedrus]

I'd just like to point out that this year the IRS budget is over $ 10 billion for the very first time.

That's correct: $ 10,537,043,000.00 according to Bush's proposed FY2004 budget.

That's:

$ 641,251.39 for each and every registered user of The Rx, even the trolls and ghosts.

81,940 Mercedes-Benz SL55 AMG roadsters, more than enough for each of us pimps and all of our respective ho's (does not include tax, tag or title, or the fact that nowhere near this many SL55s actually are slated to be produced -- but since MB has demonstrated in the past that money talks, having even built unique one-off vehicles on the factory floor for customers who pony up the dough, so I doubt it would be an issue to increase production of something they already make.)

The total combined before-tax income of 290,274 average Americans (using 2002 data) -- just slightly less than the population of Tampa, Florida.

3,976,242,641 Big Macs (not including sales tax or colorectomy fee)

Approximately 25,088,197 ounces of gold, or roughly 780 tonnes, which would form a solid block of gold 12.5ftx16.25ftx7.5ft high (little larger but I'm rounding down.)

Of the 236 nations listed in the CIA World Factbook, 108 of them have a GDP less than the annual budget of the IRS. The next six largest GDPs exceed the annual IRS budget by less than $ 1 billion -- Macedonia by only $ 33 million.

Not that I'm bitter or anything.


Phaedrus