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Main Meeting
by By Cathy Grammer-Margolin - March 26, 2001 at 23:54:15:
IRS is Here to Help You!—That is what our speaker, Ted Meyer, from the Internal Revenue Service, just had to start out with! Yes, he was a real funny guy and, those that were not there missed a fantastic talk!Ted was from the LA office and when he got his job, they told him he was Chief. He thought that meant he was the Chief Taco, and the people working for him were tacquitos. He was just kidding!
Electronic Filing (E-Filing)—About 30 million people now do e-filing, but e-filing can be done several ways. They are: Tele-filing using a touch tone phone (only for non complex filers), On-line filing using third party software such as Turbo Tax, and Practitioner’s e-filing (the tax preparer files it electronically).
When you send in your return, it goes to a whole room (warehouse size) of returns in 8 foot high open bins. He showed us a picture of all those returns and it was not pretty. When you send your return in, someone at the other end has to type in all that data. The State does scan it into imaging software, but the IRS has not yet modernized.
Why E-File?—There are some good reasons to e-file.
1. Proof of actual filing within 48 hours and that it was processable (that certified slip you get back in the mail only certifies that the IRS got “something” from you.)
2. Significant improved return accuracy (they do not have to re-type it.)
3. Reduces people IRS has to hire to type these in (therefore costs you less)
4. Faster Processing
5. Faster refunds
6. Proven product
One response I liked was that you could e-file say in February, but schedule payment not to be made until April 15th (actually April 17th this year).
You still have to fill out a signature form and mail it in (one page called form 8453) to verify/authorize the e-filing via your signature. Also if you e-file, the State of California does not require a copy of the Federal return (only for e-filers).
The goal is to get 80% of the returns to be e-filed by 2007.
If you do owe money you can pay on e-filing by Direct Debit (like ATM) or by credit card. The caveat to the credit card is that you will get charged a fee by the Bank processor since the IRS doesn’t reduce it’s amount for the merchant fee. This is usually 2-3%.
Ted told us that the largest credit card payment to date was for $5 million. (I would like to have that credit limit!)
Their web site irs.gov has tons of forms and publications (much easier than the libraries! And open 24 hours!). You can even fill in the forms using Adobe Acrobat (but it does not add them up!) and then print them. The disadvantage is that you cannot save what you typed in (that is what tax software is for!). Ted Meyer went over even the Publication 1- Your Rights as a Taxpayer. The web also has a list of e-filers by zip code and an online filing tax software list.
The California web site at: www.ftb.ca.gov also has lots of info and forms from 1994-1999 .
Unclaimed property—California at http://scoweb.sco.ca.gov/scoucp/inquiry/index.htm is a nice web page Ted showed us to help us find the money that is owed to us!
Next Month—As part of our 25th aniversary—NOCCC Original Charter Members—“And This is the Way it Was”
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