Most serious problem? Complexity!At the request of National Taxpayer Advocate W. Val Oveson, the AICPA AICPA See American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). tax executive committee recently provided a list of the 24 most serious problems encountered by U.S. taxpayers. Complexity of the current tax law topped the list. "We don't need a new tax code," said David A. Lifson, chairman of the tax executive committee. "We need a tax code that is simpler." Reiterating a position that the AICPA tax division has held since the late 1980s, the executive committee called for simplification of the code, saying that its complexity "is the source of often overwhelming confusion and frustration for taxpayers.... Simplification of the tax law should be everyone's responsibility: lawmakers, regulation writers, judges and administrators." From a policy standpoint, however, the link between equity and complexity in the tax code makes simplification difficult. "Simplicity and fairness are tradeoffs," explained William Stromsem, a director in the AICPA tax division. "The fairer you make the tax code the more complex it becomes. The simpler you make the tax code the rougher the justice." Lifson also offered an explanation of the dilemma: "There is an eternal triangle in Congress consisting of the conflicting goals of fairness, simplification and economic policy, which all get in the way of one another." There are hundreds of rules dispersed dis·perse v. dis·persed, dis·pers·ing, dis·pers·es v.tr. 1. a. To drive off or scatter in different directions: The police dispersed the crowd. b. throughout the code that attempt to give tax benefits to particular groups, he said. The more targeting you do the more complex the tax system becomes. RELATED ARTICLE: Top Taxpayer Gripes gripe v. griped, grip·ing, gripes v.intr. 1. Informal To complain naggingly or petulantly; grumble. 2. To have sharp pains in the bowels. v.tr. 1. The AICPA recently named the most serious problems taxpayers encounter. 1. Tax law complexity 2. Standards for raising an issue in an IRS An abbreviation for the Internal Revenue Service, a federal agency charged with the responsibility of administering and enforcing internal revenue laws. examination 3. Problems with notices 4. Procedures for examination 5. Power of attorney issues 6. Unrestricted extensions of the statute of limitations A type of federal or state law that restricts the time within which legal proceedings may be brought. Statutes of limitations, which date back to early Roman Law, are a fundamental part of European and U.S. law. 7. Delays in case resolution 8. Inconsistency in·con·sis·ten·cy n. pl. in·con·sis·ten·cies 1. The state or quality of being inconsistent. 2. Something inconsistent: many inconsistencies in your proposal. in implementing IRS policies 9. Lack of notice of intent to offset 10. Misapplied estimated tax Federal and state tax laws require a quarterly payment of estimated taxes due from corporations, trusts, estates, non-wage employees, and wage employees with income not subject to withholding. and other payments 11. Interest computations 12. Penalty administration 13. Retroactivity Retroactivity in law is the application of a given norm to events that took place or began to produce legal effects, before the law was approved. Most countries are guided by the general principle of irretroactivity of law of regulations 14. Offer in compromise issues 15. Slow response on freedom of information requests 16. IRS employees' lack of training, practical business sense and understanding of taxpayer viewpoints 17. Reluctance of practitioners to contact the local taxpayer advocate for fear of reprisals REPRISALS, war. The forcibly taking a thing by one nation which belonged to another, in return or satisfaction for a injury committed by the latter on the former. Vatt. B., 2, ch. 18, s. 342; 1 Bl. Com. ch. 7. 2. 18. Lack of adequate representation in small cases before the Tax Court 19. Need for further safeguards for divorced or separated spouses and married persons in community property states 20. Inability to take certain employee plan/exempt organization issues to the Appeals Office 21. Rigid policies regarding technology 22. Delays in expansion of IRS test programs 23. Unified audit procedures issues 24. Lack of cross-communication between functions within the IRS |
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