{"id":4431,"date":"2003-09-04T14:47:12","date_gmt":"2003-09-04T21:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=4431"},"modified":"2003-09-04T14:47:12","modified_gmt":"2003-09-04T21:47:12","slug":"well_this_fills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/09\/04\/well_this_fills.html","title":{"rendered":"Well, this fills me with confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"

An internal audit found that IRS tax advisers — you know, the ones you’re encouraged to call in case you have a question on your 1040, etc.? — answered questions correctly on tax law only 57% of the time<\/a>. Auditors posed as taxpayers, calling the IRS hotline.<\/p>\n

IRS employees provided complete and correct answers to 45 percent of the questions asked by auditors, and correct but incomplete answers in 12 percent of the cases.
\nIRS employees told the auditors to do their own research in IRS publications to find the answers in response to 12 percent of the questions, despite an IRS policy banning the practice.
\nIncorrect answers were given to 28 percent of the questions. The questions most commonly answered incorrectly dealt with the earned income tax credit, education credit and dependents.<\/p>\n

The IRS responded by arguing that the audit mistakenly counted cases where callers were referred to other publications or couldn’t get any help. Excluding those, the accuracy rate leapt up to a staggering 67% (which, to be fair, the IRS admitted was “inadequate”).<\/p>\n

Remember that, next time you get audited.<\/p>\n

(via Ipse Dixit<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An internal audit found that IRS tax advisers — you know, the ones you’re encouraged to call in case you have a question on your 1040, etc.? — answered questions…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":37852,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/06\/19\/judging-social-welfare-and-tax-exemption.html","url_meta":{"origin":4431,"position":0},"title":"Judging Social Welfare and Tax Exemption","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-Jun-13 2:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Organizations under tax reg 501(c)4 are both tax-exempt and don't need to reveal their donors. They also have to ...... according to the law, be exclusively for \"social welfare\".... according to the IRS, be primarily for \"social welfare:.The judgment call by the IRS in approving applications for being part of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135803,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/01\/11\/oh-thank-goodness-tax-structure-simpler-well-thought.html","url_meta":{"origin":4431,"position":1},"title":"Oh, thank goodness that our tax structure is simpler and well thought out!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 11-Jan-18 9:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, except that because Congress pushed something through without any planning at the eleventh hour at the end of the last year, effective mere days later, and the IRS has to figure out how the hell that translates into actual tax code, and companies have to actually do payroll withholding\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/unnamed-13.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":38380,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/08\/06\/the-irs-501c3-organizations-and-open-source-software.html","url_meta":{"origin":4431,"position":2},"title":"The IRS,\u00a0501(c)(3) organizations, and open source software","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 6-Aug-13 4:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Apparently the IRS is automatically flagging all applications by non-profit\u00a0open source organizations for\u00a0501(c)(3) (tax-exempt) status as subject to further investigation. Which might be okay, if said investigation didn't take years and years, which kind of bollixes up business models (even for non-profits).Reshared post from +WIREDThese former Netscape employees hatched a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46212,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/03\/political-pulpits.html","url_meta":{"origin":4431,"position":3},"title":"Political pulpits","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 3-Nov-14 2:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the bottom line: churches get tax exemption on money donated to them and on their assets. To then use those donations and assets for explicit political purposes gives such donations a favored status over ordinary political donations (which are not tax deductible) and church a favored status over other\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33814,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/15\/my-take-on-teapartyirs501c4gate.html","url_meta":{"origin":4431,"position":4},"title":"My take on TeaPartyIRS501c4gate","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 15-May-13 11:44am","format":false,"excerpt":"1. 501(c)4 status is a crock. Such orgs were originally designed to be exclusively about \"social welfare\". \u00a0The IRS interpreted\u00a0the requirements such that it became vague about what level of partisan political activity would disqualify a group, thus requiring a lot of questions be asked and a lot of judgment\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":134918,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/10\/04\/irs-hired-equifax-help-verify-identity-yes-really.html","url_meta":{"origin":4431,"position":5},"title":"The IRS has hired Equifax to help verify your identity. Yes, really","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 4-Oct-17 10:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"Equifax's CEO was just before congress testifying how the company's ineptness allowed a prolonged series of hacks to unveil the names, SSNs, DoBs, and other key identifying data of 150 million Americans (and some Canadians and Brits). That data could be invaluable in, among other things, tax fraud. Which is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Equifax%2BHQ.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4431\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}