It is a sure thing that the IRS is going down during Y2K, for the simple reason that the IRS has made many enemies, including Programmers! There will be many programmers, who will quietly and deliberately miss correcting a few lines of Code and sabotage the Y2K fix!

Make no mistake about this! This is NOT speculation, but true fact! THIS WILL HAPPEN!

YOU WILL NOT GET A TAX REFUND IN 2000! To prevent a financial loss, you MUST adjust your W-4 satus NOW to 9 dependants!!!

I'm self employed and usually pay quarterly. Not this year! Since all the records will be lost anyway and since the money will also be lost, why pay this year, when you know for sure they cannot get you!

This is the last 9 months for the IRS!! You can count on it!!!

An interesting little tidbit about an IRS experience.... Our daughter a few years back, did not have enough money to pay all of her taxes. So after a few months she finally saved it up and paid her balance, including huge fines and penalties.

Now listen to this... A friend failed one year to file, because one job he worked for never send him the end of year statement. So 2 years later he was able to get the statement and he then filed. Lo and behold, NO FINES AND NO PENALTIES!!! WHY???????? You only get penalties and fines if you make a part payment! Not if you fail to pay!

Something else... Why does the IRS pay for postage, when all government agencies get free postage? I'm betting the IRS is NOT a government Agency!

Does anyone know what's going on with the IRS???

-- old sailor (oldsailor@aol.com), April 01, 1999

Answers

Old Sailor,

It is true that the IRS is not close to being Y2K compliant right now. But don't think you won't have to pay tax in 2000. The government might, for example, decide to have the Social Security Administration collect a flat tax from the public on 1999 earnings.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), April 01, 1999.

Unless you are in a specific "revenue taxable activity", specifically spelled out in the tax code, you (that is most wage and salary earners, self-employed professionals, contractors, business owners, investors ...) are not subject to and liable for the income tax.

So why file or pay at all?

Check out http://goodbiz.com/tbks/

-- A (A@AisA.com), April 01, 1999.

Great minds think alike :)

I'm doing exactly as Old Salt advises, and I agree with kevin that a Flat Tax is on the horizon.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), April 01, 1999.

wHY DO ZOmBies rePEaT The miND NUmBIng maNTRa "FLat taX SYstEM"??????

"FLat tAX SYSteM"

"fLaT TaX sySTEm"

"FLaT tAx sYsteM"

lIke a broKEn recoRD!!!!! TeLL dIETRE thIS JACkaLS, CAn yoU??????? WherE Is thIS HoLY GraiL SysTEM DIFferENt tHAN WHat wE HAve noW??????? HuH????? INfidELs!!!!! hoW DoeS IT gET The IRS ofF Of oUr baCKS?????? HuH?????? WeLL??????

iT DOeS NOT!!!!!! IDioTS!!!!! It is tHe sAme thINg we HAvE nOW, iS IT NoT????????? WiTH OnLy oNE RAte??????? StoP YouR FOoLISH raNTInG YoU INSanE APeS!!!!!! BegONE!!!!!!

-- Dieter (questions@toask.com), April 01, 1999.

Last year, I filed a zero-income return, based strictly on the IRS' own code. I got a $2,500 refund from the state and am still working on the IRS. Old Sailor's advice is sound. Either claim "exempt" on your W-4, or if personnel (excuse me, human resources) gives you a hard time, claim nine dependents. People, this the only way to go with the IRS. It is a rogue agency, out of control, acting as though it is above the law.

-- Novacop (Sandmann@alasbab.com), April 01, 1999.

Deeiitteerr; TThOU dUtH nOOOT uNDERsTanD FFFFFFFFlaT TAx? gObACKtoSChooL sURF!

-- SCOTTY (BLehman202@aol.com), April 01, 1999.

In 1913, the Federal Reserve Act was passed. Same year, the National Income Tax was made law for the first time in this country. Why? To pay for the Fed, a private bank that monetizes government debt, the debt holders to be paid by your taxes. Ever notice those little weekly blurbs at the back of the 'Money & Investing' section of the WSJ? They announce, without commentary (as if any were needed) that the Treasury, in order to pay down 3.25 Billion in notes due, is printing up $25Billion in new debt issuance (bonds). Our government, already 5.7 TRILLION dollars in debt, prints up 25 Billion in debt notes to pay down 3 Billion in debt due. As nice a scam as ever imagined. An unsustainable ponzi scheme, mandating perpetual money supply expansion/inflation just to stay ahead of the avalanche of debt due. As Thomas Jefferson warned, thanks to our private bank, we are now slaves in the very land our forefathers fought for.

-- Spidey (in@jam.com), April 01, 1999.

SCoTTy!!!!!! CaN YoU ANSweR DIEter'S QUEstIOn noT?????? niEN????? hUh???? JACkaL!!!! DOeS yoUR MAntRA REMove The IRs frOM DIEter'S liFe??????? DoES iT DO awAY WIth DIEteR'S BUSinEss DEducTIoNS?????? WeLL?????? FORms aND PAperWORk??????? Huh????? hUh????

ALSo!!!!!! DIEteR SURfS QUiTE WeLL, DOEs he noT?????? HAnGIng tEN????? COWabuNGa!!!!!! yOu GNarLy nUT!!!!!

-- Dieter (questions@toask.com), April 01, 1999.

Spidey,

Did you see the article on Y2K in the newest issue of Envoy?

-- Franklin Journier (ready4y2k@yahoo.com), April 01, 1999.

Franklin: no, I didn't. Is Envoy available on the web? (I'll do a search). What's the gist of the article?

-- Spidey (in@jam.com), April 01, 1999.

DAMN! DiETeR, you get bettah and bettah!

You got Scotty spliffed on dat one, mon.

Think on this, gang. Every $29 Turbotax program can calculate the income taxes of the average and not-so-average taxpayer. Of course the IRS has beaucoup software that can do this as well.

Flat or graduated rate, calculating the taxes is the LEAST of their problems.

Their software problems come from their other voluminous activities: tracking the taxpayers, their debts and collection efforts, and their own massive internal bureaucracy.

If you read the original RFC for IRS computer system modernization, from May 1997 I think it was, they have created a monstrosity of overlaying (and undermining) systems, and the links between them looked like a briarpatch tangle.

Somewhere down in that tangle is the tax calculation, but it is a triviality compared with the rest of it.

I don't know why otherwise-intelligent people are caught up in the mantra -- flatflatflat. Stupidstupidstupid. Maybe it's made just right for a stupid Congress to rush through in December and REALLY foul things up!

Above all, they need to keep people thinking the IRS can catch 'em somehow. Doing the IRS's "paper tiger" propaganda recovery set-up for them, are we Scottibo? Way to go, D-man!

-- moi encore (not@this time.gov), April 01, 1999.