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Revenooer Rants: IRS record-keeping takes a hit

Jeff Quinn

By now, you’ve heard that for some inexplicable reason, IRS has simply “lost” a bunch of Lois Lerner’s emails, which at least one Congressional Committee has been seeking for a year or more.

Even though IRS says its technicians have gone to great lengths attempting to recover the info from Lois’ computer, including sending the computer to a forensic lab operated by its criminal investigations division.

And please give IRS a break, they ask, given that they have assigned more than 250 blokes to work on the various Congressional investigations, and have already spent something like $10 million to produce more than 750,000 documents.



Right — and see how much slack they give you the next time you get audited and can’t find some records which they have asked for!

See how quickly they will rush to simply disallow your deductions because you can’t find the papers to support them! They’re right — you’re wrong. The party will be over in that instance.



And speaking of what “rights” you do or don’t have when it comes to dealings with IRS, you surely will be pleased to learn of your recently adopted “Taxpayer Bill of Rights,” which the Revenooers say will become a “cornerstone” document in the annals of taxpayers’ dealings with Uncle Sam, and related to which Commish Koskinen asserts, “Respecting taxpayer rights continues to be a top priority for IRS employees….”

And the big ten are:

• The Right to be informed

• The Right to Quality Service (That’s nice – we’re so glad to learn of all that “service” we get from IRS – especially when we try to contact them by phone.)

• The Right to pay no more than the correct amount of tax

• The Right to challenge the IRS’ position and be heard

• The Right to appeal an IRS decision in an independent forum

• The Right to finality

• The Right to privacy

• The Right to confidentiality

• The Right to retain representation

• The Right to a fair and just tax system

The last one is particularly nice – maybe Lois Lerner and her cronies should better educate themselves on this one.

Go to http://www.irs.gov if you care to review the newly created special section of IRS’ website which highlights all of these rights of yours.

— CONSULT YOUR TAX ADVISER – This article contains general information about various tax matters. You should consult your CPA regarding the implications to your own particular situation. Jeff Quinn is a shareholder in Ashley Quinn, CPAs and Consultants, Ltd., with offices in Incline Village and Reno. He welcomes comments at jquinn@ashleyquinncpas.com.


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