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| Tax News - Tax Law Writers Need Pros To Do Their Returns |
| 2006-04-16 |
| Redlining the obvious meter? WASHINGTON - Many lawmakers who sit on the tax-writing committees in Congress hire professional preparers to fill out their tax returns, rather than try to decipher by themselves the laws they've written. I think it should be a committee requirement that lawmakers have to prepare their own, just so they can see the same shit I have to put up with every year. Three of the four senior lawmakers on the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees, the panels in charge of writing tax laws, turn to paid professionals to file their annual returns. The exception is Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., a former college professor who said he has prepared his own return "forever" and that he'd wait until close to the deadline to file. This guy's my hero... "There's no reason for me to pay Uncle Sam — pay, you heard that — until I have to," he said. According to IRS statistics, that makes these members of Congress much like the rest of the nation. More than 60 percent of taxpayers use professionals to have their returns prepared and filed. The number typically increases a little each year. E-filing will push those numbers up, too. Some lawmakers have more complicated financial lives than the average taxpayer, making their tax returns more complicated. Some said they had a professional do the job to guarantee the return's accuracy. Good point - even if it's a stack of brokerage statements it'll take hours just for input, then you reconcile it, then it gets reviewed. I remember one return that took me 20 hours just to prepare (no reviews). But a few prepare their tax returns themselves, including Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who said he does it "just so I can go through the process." Ryan, however, does ask an accountant to check the return for accuracy. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., usually prepares his own taxes using computer software. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, prepares his and his children's returns and mails them to the IRS. Rep. Jim Ramstad, R-Minn., doesn't, but he agreed it might be a good idea to try. "I think it is important that we operate in the real world," Ramstad said. |
| Posted by:Raj |
#2 You sure that wasn't "mentally handicapped, blind, and a Congressman (but I repeat myself)," UT? ;-p"I think it is important that we operate in the real world"Most people in Congress wouldn't know the real world if it bit them in the ass. Which I wish it would. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2006-04-16 13:00 |
| #1 It used to be IRS policy that they would not assist directly in the completion of filings unless the individual was mentally handicapped, blind, or a Congressman. That was so appropriate. |
| Posted by: Uninenter Thirong7060 2006-04-16 10:10 |