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Irony alert: IRS fails government audit

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  • Irony alert: IRS fails government audit

    Wed Jun 30, 3:18 pm ET
    Getting audited is such a hassle! Just ask the IRS.

    A new report from the Government Accountability Office inspected the tax agency's financial statements from the 2009 fiscal year with the exacting thoroughness of, well, of an IRS auditor, and found a few billion-dollar errors.

    According to the report (PDF), the IRS made a variety of accounting errors last year that "could adversely affect the reliability of its financial statements" and result in "duplicate or erroneous refunds." Among the mistakes were a "failure to record the receipt of a taxpayer’s $3 million payment" and an $8 billion discrepancy between two accounting systems tracking how much money taxpayers owe. The audit also found a $5.1 billion "unexplained variance" between the total amount the agency took in last year and the amount its detailed tax files said it took in.

    But what's a few billion here or there, right?

    In truth, the shortcomings are all relatively minor infractions given the size of the IRS, and don't materially affect its performance of its duties. And you'll find similar lapses in virtually any close examination of a huge bureaucracy.

    But it's still good to know that the IRS had to go through it, if only so it can empathize with the American taxpayer.

    Irony alert: IRS fails government audit - Yahoo! News

  • #2
    What a surprise...

    They've been hasssling me for $43 that I paid last July. I received a notice back in April. I spent 30 minutes on hold to get to an agent, then faxed her a copy of the cancelled check (which cleared my bank a year ago). The agent said they would put a "hold" on collection efforts. Gee whiz, very generous of them.

    I received a "Notice of Intent to Levy" a couple weeks ago, they've added $4 in penalties and interest. I tried to call, but only got the recording and another 20 minute wait, so I hung up. I wrote them a nasty letter and included another copy of the cancelled check.

    Then I went down to see my banker, and got her researching it. Hopefully between the bank and the IRS they will waste 30 or 40 hours trying to find the missing $43. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay it twice.
    "We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008

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    • #3
      Geesh....and isn't this the same department who is going to enforce the new health insurance mandate? Insanity.

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      • #4
        Who's the head guy in charge of the government's money? Timothy "TurboTax Cheat" Geithner?
        "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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