Electronic filing off to a slow start.If the volume of electronic filing continues to grow at its recent pace, the Internal Revenue Service will fall far short of its goal to have 80 million electronic returns filed by 2001, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a report by the General Accounting Office. "In 1995, the number of electronic returns is expected to drop to about 14.8 million from 1994's 16.4 million, which the IRS An abbreviation for the Internal Revenue Service, a federal agency charged with the responsibility of administering and enforcing internal revenue laws. attributes to its crackdown on refund fraud," said the GAO study. But even if 1995 was considered an aberration and the average annual growth rate is 14%, the GAO estimated that only 33 million returns would be filed electronically by 2001. Why the decline? The GAO said a major impediment A disability or obstruction that prevents an individual from entering into a contract. Infancy, for example, is an impediment in making certain contracts. Impediments to marriage include such factors as consanguinity between the parties or an earlier marriage that is still valid. to the expansion of electronic filing is its cost. Taxpayers who wish to file electronically must do so through a preparer or electronic filing transmitter and pay from $15 to $40. Joseph L. Cammarata, chair of the American Institute of CPAs tax practice and procedures committee, told the GAO that although some practitioners have had good results filing electronically over several years, other CPAs stopped doing it because it did not fit into their office routine or because they or their clients didn't think filing electronically was worth the cost. Getting back on track The electronic filing option is a major part of the IRS initiative to reduce its reliance on paper. To ensure the success of the IRS modernization modernization Transformation of a society from a rural and agrarian condition to a secular, urban, and industrial one. It is closely linked with industrialization. As societies modernize, the individual becomes increasingly important, gradually replacing the family, initiative, the GAO recommended the IRS commissioner * Identify taxpayers whose returns involve a lot of paper and remove the blocks, such as the cost, that have kept them from participating. * Adopt goals for electronic filing that focus on reducing the Service's paper-processing workload and operating costs operating costs npl → gastos mpl operacionales . * Prepare a contingency plan A plan involving suitable backups, immediate actions and longer term measures for responding to computer emergencies such as attacks or accidental disasters. Contingency plans are part of business resumption planning. in the event the electronic filing program falls short of expectations. |
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