tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8959556.post1488695545947357564..comments2024-02-21T17:30:40.448-05:00Comments on An Objectivist Individualist: All-Controlling Governments Are Identity Theft AccomplicesCharles R. Anderson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09610765984333672076noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8959556.post-62850181850386864272015-08-02T05:14:41.138-05:002015-08-02T05:14:41.138-05:00Thanks for your reply. I can understand that the I...Thanks for your reply. I can understand that the IRS makes poor use of the data they get. On the other hand, my personal experience tells me that the IRS makes *some* use of it. In 2003 I exercised employee stock options. My employer submitted a W-2 for it. The broker who handled it submitted a 1099 for it. I got a letter from the IRS suspecting unreported income. I had to write a letter explaining why my return was complete and correct. The same thing happened again for 2006. I exercised the same kind of options in 2004 and 2005, also double-source-reported, but no letter from the IRS!<br /><br />Both times the letter came several weeks after my refund. So it seems a fraudulent filer can get a refund before the IRS cross-checks anything. Merjethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06494146594410918022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8959556.post-78779630127003440082015-08-01T14:16:33.909-05:002015-08-01T14:16:33.909-05:00Hi Merlin. Thanks for your comment.
Part of the ...Hi Merlin. Thanks for your comment.<br /><br />Part of the problem is that of being inundated with data. The federal government collects huge quantities of data with the conviction that they will provide control and enforcement capabilities. In theory they do. In practice, it is a tough job to assemble all of the data to be organized and searchable. Competence is required, but competence is in short supply in the government. There are competent people, but they are few compared to the magnitude of the task. Commonly, there are more interesting things for these few competent people to do as strategic actors than doing the due diligence required of a patient and dogged tax payment investigator. The competent are soon promoted to management, while the incompetent are left to do the routine tasks.<br /><br />The FAA and ICE have tried over and over to come up with new computer systems and data management software to manage aircraft control and immigration issues, respectively. They have failed over and over in doing this.<br /><br />Too much data can be confusing and can only make it harder to see the forest for all the individual trees. Sometimes the hardest problems to solve are those on which you have too much information. It is often useful to form an hypothesis from smaller quantities of information and then test that idea against further information. But with a huge sum of information it may be actually harder to come up with the core essential ideas that make sense of the huge database. One of the classic cases in which this is true is the huge database of climate and weather information which seems to contribute to the baffling response of those who believe in catastrophic man-made global warming and which acts to protect them from all attempts to show that their hypothesis has failed. No warming for 17 years --- well that must be because the heat is being absorbed by the oceans at great depth. Well no, but it is hard to cut to the essential and critical issues in very complex problems, despite the fact that properly viewed, critical solutions may actually be available which are rather simple. They just are not simple to get to.<br /><br />Of course the IRS is distracted by implementing ObamaCare, by tying up attempts by the Tea Party or Limited Government groups to form non-profit organizations, by destroying e-mail records, by ignoring and defying federal court orders, and by fulfilling the desire of the Obama administration to issue as many tax credits as possible, and far more than are legal, to targeted groups the Democrats want to vote for them. The employees of the IRS are very, very busy people, albeit largely in doing mischief and dastardly deeds.<br />Charles R. Anderson, Ph.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/09610765984333672076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8959556.post-22981396476825695772015-08-01T07:48:26.076-05:002015-08-01T07:48:26.076-05:00I am astounded by the IRS's inability to cross...I am astounded by the IRS's inability to cross-check and catch fraudulent tax returns. It receives W-2s, 1099s, and so forth from independent sources that give data regarding the person for whom a tax return is filed that can be compared to the data on the tax return. I can understand a fraudulant return supposedly filed on behalf of somebody who is self-employed, has no reportable investment income or retirement income, and pays no estimated taxes passing the cross-checks, but how few people fit that category?Merjethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06494146594410918022noreply@blogger.com