- quote -

I'll vote for that.

Linda Dorfmont E.A., CFP, CSA

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TaxSrv" <n3_eu[at]comcast.net> wrote

- quote -

Now *that's* a good idea!

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- quote -

There is an AP article at http://www.pro2net.com/x50800.xml
about the Treasury Department's IG auditing volunteer sites
and finding a 2/3 error rate, mostly in the taxpayers'
favor. The call in number I heard about was in the range
you are describing.

Wayne

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Vic Dura wrote:

- quote -

http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/104948

Two thirds of 35 returns prepared at volunteer sites had
errors. The volunteer sites excluded the elderly and
military. This would have excluded TCE and AARP Taxaide
sites.

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"Vic Dura" wrote:

- quote -

No idea about those audits, but not surprising and just
a statement on the growing complexity of tax law, both
applicability, interplay of numerous rules, and the
resulting accuracy of tax computation.

I recall it was even before TurboTax' initial products
which where DOS applications that IRS contracted for its
own DOS application for IRS examiners to produce accurate
examination reports. That would date it before 1990,
just before Windows 3.0 started the big ball rolling.
Back then, of course, the complexity of the rules and tax
computation was considerably less than what we have today,
thanks to the Congress, knowing that for t/p's -- between
TurboTax and volume tax prep firms -- no citizen burden
is much of a biggie.

There should be a Constitutional amendment where every
member of Congress is required to prepare his/her own
1040 in a reserved room, with pencil, paper and any IRS
Publication and Excedrin pills they need. Monitored by
M-16 armed Capitol Hill Police, so no one sneaks in a
little Sony Vaio laptop device with TurboTax on it.

Fred F.

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I read an article in the paper today reporting that last
year the IRS audited a sample of its "volunteer" tax prep
sites. The article didn't state it, but I'm guessing they
mean VITA/TCE. The article reported that the IRS found about
a 30% error rate.

I also recall reading once of a similar audit performed by
some group, not the IRS, that looked at the accuracy of
answers from the official IRS tax-question call-in phone
number. I seem to recall that the error rate for that was in
the 25% to 30% range.

Am I recalling these numbers correctly? Does anyone recall
the approximate results of similar audits? I'm just curious
about it as the numbers I recall seem so similar.

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