House Republicans Seek Impeachment of IRS Commish

Two days ago the Justice Department formally closed its investigation of alleged targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service. DOJ found that Lois Lerner and other top IRS managers were guilty of “mismanagement, poor judgment, and institutional inertia,” but had done nothing criminal. This scandal began in 2013 and has been a hot topic in tax professional circles and among anyone interested in government & politics. Over the course of these past two and a half years, the IRS has been investigated by TIGTA, the Justice Department, and even the FBI. Some IRS officials involved in the scandal have resigned under the pressure. Even so, the DOJ stated that there was no evidence that any IRS official obstructed justice or attempted to obstruct justice. Big win for the IRS.

But GOP lawmakers don’t want to put this scandal to rest until justice has been served. Their target is IRS Commissioner, John Koskinen, and they’re not interested in settling with contempt or obstruction charges; they want to impeach him. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and 18 other Republicans have initiated the seldom-used impeachment process against Commissioner John Koskinen, which will go through the House Judiciary Committee next. Those who support the impeachment of Koskinen claim that he has violated the public trust by lying about the existence of emails, or deleting emails, or allowing emails to be deleted on his watch or any combination of these things. The IRS, of course, insists that it has fully cooperated with any and all investigations, spending upwards of $20 million and 160,000 employee hours in the process.

Interesting footnote: pursuing impeachment against an agency official is rare. Back in 1876, Congress tried to impeach War Secretary, William Belknap, but he resigned before the conclusion of the process. Belknap, known as a man of virtues and flaws, was secretary to President Grant, and an attorney by trade. He went back to that trade after it was discovered that he had been involved in bribes and in selling weapons to France.

FTB Penalties at Every Turn

Estimated Tax Penalty, Late Filing Penalty, Late Payment Penalty & More

Can anyone keep track of all the different California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) fees and penalties? If you owe taxes, you’ve got to keep an eye on them, or your tax liability can quickly get out of hand. At a minimum, you should know that they exist.

The most obvious penalties are the “late filing penalty” and the “late payment penalty.” The late filing penalty is imposed for filing after April 15th, or after the extended due date, as the case may be. The amount of this penalty is 25 percent of the amount due. The FTB late payment penalty is assessed if the full tax on the return is not paid by the original due date. The penalty is 5 percent of the amount that was not paid, plus .5 percent monthly, until it is paid (subject to a 25 percent maximum).

Other common penalties include the “estimated tax penalty” and the “demand to file penalty.” Obviously if you are required to make estimated tax payments and you either don’t pay in full or pay late, you’ll be subject to the estimated tax penalty. The demand to file penalty is almost what you’d think. If FTB sends you a letter demanding that you file a certain tax return, or provide certain information, and you disregard it, they will impose a 25 percent penalty. The catch is that they figure the penalty based on the FTB’s assessment before applying any payments or credits (not your own return), which sometimes has seemingly unfair results. Where else might you owe penalties and interest even if your tax return shows that a refund is due? Not with the IRS, that’s for sure.  The IRS does not typically care if you file a return if that return is going to result in a refund.

I do understand the rationale of requiring a return, even if reported income and withholding information suggests that no tax would be due. The reasoning is that the FTB simply wants the taxpayer to certify (by filing a return) that there is no additional income or taxable events that may have not been reported by third parties.

There are also a number of “cost recovery fees” that could be imposed by FTB that drive up the balance of a tax bill. FTB charges a fee if your account is assigned to filing enforcement or to collections. There are also fees associated with filing a tax lien or seizing and selling property. You can read all about FTB collection procedures in publication 1140.

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The Taxonomy of IRS letters

Science has documented and named something like 900,000 different insect species. Interestingly, most authorities agree that the number of insect species that have not been named far exceeds the number that have been named. We can only estimate what this number might be: anywhere between 2 million and 30 million.

And this is where I draw a strange comparison between insects and IRS correspondence. It won’t seem all that strange if you have ever received IRS mail over an extended period of time. The comparison certainly isn’t that tenuous from the perspective of a tax attorney who sees an endless stream of every type of IRS correspondence show up in the office. Based on a recent TIGTA audit report, the IRS sent out over 141 million notices and 37 million letters during fiscal year 2014. That’s a lot of mail, but knowing how many people that they have to reach, these numbers seem reasonable. However, the variety of IRS letters and notices (like the variety of bug species) is apparently too large for the IRS to wrap its brain around. There are 2,749 types of letters and 195 types of notices currently in circulation.

TIGTA conducted this audit in order to follow up on a project that was initiated years ago wherein the IRS was supposed to remove social security numbers from forms, letters, and notices (due to identity theft concerns) except in cases where the SSN is absolutely necessary. The project was supposed to be completed in 2009, but the IRS put it off due to budget cuts and the need to focus efforts elsewhere. TIGTA found that the IRS has fixed only 2 percent of its letters and 48 percent of notices. Not only does the IRS not have a plan for completing this project and removing social security numbers, it does not even have a process or procedure for identifying correspondence with unnecessary SSNs. IRS management is apparently overwhelmed by the variety of correspondence; they are on record saying that compiling a list of all correspondence is more costly an endeavor than it appears. So what is the best way to describe the relationship between IRS correspondence and the world’s insect population? They’re everywhere and we don’t even know what most of them are.

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