wtf? Watchdog: IRS tormenting struggling taxpayers

[spanone]

WASHINGTON— A government watchdog
says the Internal Revenue Service is
tormenting struggling taxpayers in the midst of
a slumping economy by increasing the number
of liens the agency has filed against people
who owe back taxes.

The IRS filed nearly 1.1 million liens in the
budget year that ended in September, a 14
percent jump over the previous year. Liens
punish taxpayers and often hurt their ability to
pay back taxes, National Taxpayer Advocate
Nina E. Olson said Wednesday in her annual
report to Congress.

"By filing a lien against a taxpayer with no
money and no assets, the IRS often collects
nothing, yet it inflicts long-term harm on the
taxpayer by making it harder for him to get
back on his feet when he does get a job," said
Olson, an independent watchdog within the
IRS. "Absent data that show liens make a
meaningful contribution to revenue collection
and especially in this economy, I find it
unacceptable that the IRS continues to
torment financially struggling taxpayers in this
way."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40929461/ns/business-us_business/#

[gateley]

1. You know, the IRS always treats citizens as though they're (we're) the enemy. It's

not US who are getting off scott free. It's such a bullying organization at times. It's wrong.

[Abq_Sarah]

7. It's not just the IRS

At times it seems the folks up in DC view "we the people" as nothing more than a bunch of rabble.

[Supersedeas]

15. we pay their taxes, fight their wars for oil, and watch as democracy goes to the highest bidder

[DJ13]

2. Im not surprised, thats what I would expect from a conservative administration

oh wait......

[Mimosa]

3. It's easier for the IRS to go after the struggling poor and middle classes

The rich can afford tax attorneys.

[Rex]

4. + all the tea in China.

Uber-wealthy never worry about struggling and laugh at the taxman.

[EFerrari]

9. Bingo.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. I can testify to that.

Since 2008, they have tried to ding me 4 different times, 4 different reasons, each time I owed no money, did not even need to file returns.

My CPA reports he has seen huge uptick in IRS letters claiming taxpayers owe what they do not owe,
usually 100-200.00 dollar range, and that some people just send in a check because it would cost about the same to dispute the claim.
Multiply that times a million.

Tomorrow I go file a rebuttal against another demand.

A friend told me she got a $5,000 plus demand letter over taxes she had paid the previous year,
it took a letter and a copy of her paid taxes to stop them.

[Riley18]

6. I was just worrying about my taxes today. Makes me furious

that I have to pay more than the wealthy. Just hope I don't have to come up with extra money because it will not be possible this year. There is no "extra" money anymore for my family.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. We just got a registered letter from the IRS

They think we owe them $113.75.

And they threatened liens and garnishments if we don't pay.

$113.75

Wouldn't the legal costs associated with a lien or garnishment be MORE than $113.75? And why cant they just send us a bill through the regular mail? This isn't a past due amount. They are claiming we figured wrong the amount we owed them last year. This was the first notice.

DH said we should round it up and pay them $114.00 but that would probably mess up their records and result in yet another registered letter. LOL

[csziggy]

10. My sister used to torment her phone company by paying them one cent

More than the bill. Their official policy was to always cut a check for every amount over the billed amount. So she would get a check for the amount of one cent that cost the company probably several dollars to print and mail. She had a feud with that company for over twenty years and got a lot of pleasure out of simply costing them money every chance she could.

Send the IRS a check for the $114.00 and insist that any amount over what is owed be credited towards your taxes for this year.

[timo]

16. we got over 50 letters

this year, thick and packed full of paper, due to some accounting snafu we owed 47 cents......so we paid, then another letter saying we still owed an additional 1.12, so we paid, then we got a check back for 97.00 and then yet another letter asking for 78.00 it went on and on and on, and you cant get mad and yell or complain tooo much or they will come and really screw you up, small business lives in fear of the I.R.S.

[customerserviceguy]

11. Filing the liens

is the way to lengthen the time frame that the IRS has to be able to collect the sums owed. I'm not surprised that they're doing it.

[sarcasmo]

13. Plus if I am not mistaken it will allow them to tack on the insane late penalties and

back date said penalties to the lien date.

[customerserviceguy]

14. They already have those rights

and they go back to the 'assessment' date, which is the date that the IRS made a formal determinination that the taxes were owed.

I don't blame the IRS for trying to do what it feels it needs to do to get paid, but the problem is that we allow a credit report to be misused for all kinds of things, such as a job qualification where handling money is not involved, or auto insurance. It's relevant when applying for a loan, or even a lease, but beyond that, it's BS to even allow anyone to use the information.

A possible solution to this is allowing the IRS and tax debtors to enter into agreements to extend the time available for the IRS to collect that do NOT go on the public record, especially where the debtor has no discernable assets to put a lien on.

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. k&r