Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Guilty for Sure

Read this and know that you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent with respect to your taxes and the IRS.
This has actually been the reality for years and years and few people realize that once the IRS singles you out for an audit it is up to you to prove your innocence and not their responsibility to prove your committed fraud.
Apparently, this is even more true if you are a low income taxpayer and are so impudent as to file file for an earned income credit.
Here are some details provided by the taxpayer advocate Nina Olsen from the article...
"It is a central tenet of American law that the government must notify an accused person of the offense it suspects he committed and must give the accused person an opportunity to present exculpatory evidence to show his innocence," Olson said in her report.

That study showed no evidence of fraud in 66 percent of the cases, and taxpayers were given a full refund. In another 14 percent of the cases, taxpayers were given a partial refund. Taxpayers got some or all of their claimed refund in 80 percent of the cases.

Nearly 75 percent of the total pool studied were low-income families claiming the earned income tax credit, designed to reduce poverty among the working poor.

"At a minimum, this procedure constitutes an extraordinary violation of fundamental taxpayer rights and fairness," she said. "In our view, it may also constitute a violation of due process of law."
Note also that statistics show that in the majority of cases the IRS is wrong. Welcome to the New and Improved Soviet Union.

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