Product Description
(From the back cover) For the 64 years of its existence, the U. S. Internal Revenue Code has been ridiculed, feared and despised by virtually everyone. And why not? As presented by the Internal Revenue Service, the code appears illogical, inconsistent and incomprehensible. As presented, the code defies practically the entire Bill of Rights: requiring citizens to testify against themselves, allowing searches and seizures without warrants, levying fines and penalties without trials and imposing a tax on the basic right to earn a living. As presented, the IRC would appear to turn everything we all thought we had learned in grade school English and Civics on its head. Is it possible that we all just misunderstood those simple lessons? Maybe. But researcher, analyst and scholar Peter E. Hendrickson believes that after Cracking the Code, youll agree that what has been misunderstood is the 3,413,780 word monstrosity itself-and how, and to whom, it applies.
Hendrickson delves deep into the history, statutes and case law behind the Code to reveal its startling and liberating secrets; and unless you live in a cave, you need to know what he has uncovered. Once you've finished Cracking the Code, the tax laws will never mean the same thing to you, or your bank account, again!
Customer Reviews:
Pettifoggery Can Be Hazardous to Your Freedom.......2006-05-31
Beware this book. I would give it no stars if that were possible. An earlier reviewer had it right when he said, "Twisting the meaning of 'includes' to exclude everything but the items in the phrase following 'includes' is the basis of his argument." It sounds like this can't be true, but it is. It reminds me of Bill Clinton's quibbling over the word "is." What such tax pettifoggers don't understand is that the power to tax incomes or income-producing activity is inherent in the state. Therefore, the income tax is illegitimate only if the state itself is illegitimate (which it is). If you accept the legitimacy of the state, then the income tax follows. The idea that Congress meant to, and constitutionally could, tax only federal employees and the like is absurd on its face. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly said, even in the tax resisters' beloved Brushaber opinion (reproduced in Hendrickson's book), that the federal government has an "all-embracing" power to tax -- incomes and anything else -- that predates the 16th Amendment. No court has disagreed. We will never get the tax monkey off our backs by this transparent trickery. If I were paranoid, I might wonder if peddlers of this kind of stuff were really IRS agents trying to entrap us. But I don't think the IRS would be so obvious.
This stuff works.......2006-04-14
Cracking the code is Pete Hendrickson's interpretation of the status and applicability of the Internal Revenue Code. Pete shows us that the code as written does not apply to most of the income most people earn in the US.
The results of Pete's work can be seen on his website "LostHorizons" where are posted many of the refunds and offsets that have been received by those following Pete's research and methods.
The book is concisely written and, if you are presupposed to think that every lawyer and CPA out there is lying about what your tax liability is, then this is the book for you.
Never mind that the US government has now filed for an injunction against Mr. Hendrickson and is suing for recovery of the refunds received by some of the larger recipients of refunds, never mind that Pete himself is not an attorney; and that his website and book have more disclaimers than seen by workers building the atomic bomb. Be sure to overlook that promoters of this stuff are now being regularly sentenced to jail. Also, you probably shouldn't go online to see that the IRS is disallowing the refunds and tacking on frivolous filing penalties. Just remember, so far, those using the information and filing according to Cracking the Code have yet to go to jail.
If you haven't read - don't review!.......2006-04-07
After reading some of the other "reviews", I'd suggest, If you haven't read - don't review! I've read the book forward and backward, annotated and highlighted and researched the findings on the web.
But, if this is your subject and you know more about your citizenship than you do about your sports team or that reality show, this is a must read for you!
Let me ask a question!... Is there any other law in the United States of America that implies "individual self-assessment" and "voluntary compliance"? Not a one! That should be a good indication of the mendacity at play here. A stop sign at a lonely crossroads in the dead of night. One "self-assesses" the situation and decides not to stop. Whether a cop is present or not, there is no "voluntary compliance" - the law says stop - always! Running the stop sign breaks the law - it's illegal. Every law in this country applies the same way, either positively or negatively. That's the way law works.
There is either a law that compels people to owe and pay an income tax or there is not. If there is a law it should be clear, concise and understandable. If it exists at all it would be "mandatory" and "compulsory". There would be absolutely NO abiguity. But....
And that is why you need to read this book. The author clearly and concisely reveals the truth about the Internal Revenue Code and sheds light on the terms, phrases, and definitions that do indicate who has and who does not have taxable income. The fact revealed is that most of us "volunteer" to comply with a law that doesn't even apply to us. And we do it time and again, year after year. The facts in this book, properly applied, can end that cycle.
Don't be fooled by negative reviews by people with "conventional wisdom" who have no intention of learning, or allowing you to learn. Buy this book. Read this book. Apply this book. And, share this book.
Buyer Beware!.......2006-03-08
The IRS has put this "method" on its new dirty dozen list, attached below. Twisting the meaning of "includes" to exclude everything but the items in the phrase following "includes" is the basis of his arguement. I don't work for the government. I am not in the tax business either. Your wages, salary, income from employment or whatever you want to call it is wages that must be reported and may be subject to taxes regardless of whether you work for the government or not. Please also go to the losthorizons.com website to read about the cases where the IRS is pushing back. Nobody that has filed recently is getting refunds - but they are getting the 'frivolous' filing letter. The people that have gotten refunds already using this scheme are also getting these letters now. They don't have any idea what it is going to cost them to defend against the IRS, and they will lose.
IR-2006-25, Feb. 7, 2006
WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service today issued the 2006 "Dirty Dozen"--its latest annual tally of some of the most notorious tax scams--along with an alert to taxpayers this filing season to watch out for schemes that promise to reduce or eliminate taxes.
Two new schemes have worked their way onto the list in 2006. In recent months IRS personnel have noted the emergence of the two scams--"zero wages" and "Form 843 tax abatement"-- in which filers use IRS forms to claim that their tax bills have been wrongly inflated.
Also high on the list in 2006 is "phishing," a favorite ploy of identity thieves. Over the past few years, the IRS has observed criminals working through the Internet, posing even as representatives of the IRS itself, with the goal of tricking unsuspecting taxpayers into revealing private information that can be used to steal from their financial accounts.
Several of the usual suspects from last year remain on the list. The IRS, for example, continues to see schemes designed to exploit charitable organizations. Some taxpayers, meanwhile, still use frivolous arguments to claim they do not owe taxes, despite the fact such reasoning has been thrown out of court time and again.
"When it comes to taxes, everyone has to pay their fair share," IRS Commissioner Mark W. Everson said. "I urge taxpayers not to be taken in by hucksters who promise to lower or eliminate taxes. Getting caught up in the Dirty Dozen or similar schemes can lead to big headaches."
Namely, involvement with tax schemes can lead to imprisonment and fines. The IRS pursues and shuts down promoters of these and numerous other scams. Anyone pulled into these schemes can also face repayment of taxes plus interest and penalties.
The IRS urges people to avoid these common schemes:
1. Zero Wages. In this scam, new to the Dirty Dozen, a taxpayer attaches to his or her return either a Form 4852 (Substitute Form W-2) or a "corrected" Form 1099 that shows zero or little wages or other income. The taxpayer may include a statement indicating the taxpayer is rebutting information submitted to the IRS by the payer.
An explanation on the Form 4852 may cite "statutory language behind IRC 3401 and 3121" or may include some reference to the paying company refusing to issue a corrected Form W-2 for fear of IRS retaliation. The Form 4852 or 1099 is usually attached to a "Zero Return." (See number four below.)
An Excellent Start.......2005-11-14
This may be the first review of "Cracking the Code" (CtC) not to award it either 5 "stars" or 1 - and so to be of more than usual value.
Writers of those giving CtC a mere 1 star probably have sawdust between their ears or a tax-funded paycheck in their pockets - or quite likely, both.
Writers favoring it with 5 stars convey an understandable enthusiasm, but perhaps not one tempered by the experience of reading comparable works; having just discovered that government has been wickedly deceiving Americans for nearly a century, and that in Law there is no obligation to pay most income tax, they are naturally excited.
My perception is that CtC is a must-read for newcomers to the subject, for it's well written and reasoned and makes a lot of sense out of an apparently incomprehensible volume: the Internal Revenue Code. However, I don't stop there. The author concludes that the income tax does bear upon a minority of Americans; other authors, equally scholarly, conclude that it bears upon nobody at all.
In particular, after enjoying "Cracking the Code" I recommend the reader to study what is still the definitive work in this field of law, Irwin Schiff's classic "The Great Income Tax Hoax." Like Hendrickson, Schiff traces the origins of the alleged income tax back to the Civil War and through the critical decade following 1909 - but concludes for good reason that the entire "tax" is a gigantic scam from A to Z. The "Hoax" also carries the strong endorsement of a government book-ban, so if necessary buy it used.
Book Description
- Are you burdened with the tax debt of a current or former spouse?
- Have you just received an IRS computerized or "correction" notice?
- Are you in danger of having your property seized?
- Has your tax return been selected for an audit?
- Is the IRS knocking on your door?
If you've answered "yes" to any of these questions, you're not alone: more than twenty-five million taxpayers are faced with the terrifying prospect of dealing with audits, assessments, or other IRS problems every year. But with all the books devoted to how to prepare your taxes, there's never been one that explains how to get yourself out of trouble easily, legally, and inexpensively -- until now. With The IRS Problem Solver, veteran tax expert Dan Pilla offers the first comprehensive guide to dealing with the most common IRS problems taxpayers confront, from face-to-face audits to fraud penalties. Pilla's book is an indispensable preventive tool for all who file their own taxes—and a necessity for anyone who's just received a notice that the wolf is at the door.
Customer Reviews:
Nobody knows the IRS and their tactics better than Dan Pilla!.......2006-06-14
Interviewed many times on the great
Radio Free America Show, by host Tom
Valentine, who just retired after 19
yrs., on the radio, Pilla lays bare
the lies of both the charlatans like
Irwin Schiff and the IRS. One day
there will be a monument to Dan, Jr.
& maybe his father, who does the great
Freedom Calenders, in Minnesota. Let's
start planning one today!
Average customer rating:
- Tax Reform means more tax litigation
- Cancer of Corruption in a Mountain of Malfeasance
- Unbridled Imagination
- Horrifying Problem - Worse Prognosis
- Much painful truth in a book with title off target
|
The Power to Destroy
William H. Nixon , and
William V. Roth
Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly Pr
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Binding: Hardcover
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| Current Events
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ASIN: 0871137488 |
Amazon.com
When Senator William V. Roth Jr., the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, initiated an oversight investigation of the Internal Revenue Service in 1996, it was the first time in two generations that the agency had been subject to serious review. The proceedings brought to light horror stories of taxpayers subjected to the IRS's unrelenting bureaucracy, stories recounted in the pages of The Power to Destroy. The book also discusses how these hearings led to the passage of the Internal Revenue Service Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, which "brings greater balance to the relationship between the IRS and the taxpayer--offering tools that taxpayers can use to ensure fairness for themselves and tools the Service can use to better police and protect the integrity of its operations." But, as Senator Roth and his executive assistant admit, this can only be the beginning of continued reform.
Customer Reviews:
Tax Reform means more tax litigation.......2004-09-16
In 13 years, Congress has passed almost 80 tax bills. To understand the impact of this expansive nature of tax regulation lets look at the impact of the "Tax Relief Act of 1997: 285 new sections and 824 amendments. In the early, 20th century the tax code spanned 5.5 million words requiring 17,000 pages.
Tax Reform does not slow the stream of tax revenues going to the government treasury nor does it reduce the tax burdens. Tax Reform codifies administration practices, management decisions, documenting behavior and conduct, and analyzes the execution and application of the internal revenue law. Congress levies taxes. Congress drives the demand for higher taxes. The reform act oversees the execution of the collection of those taxes. The Reform Act of 1998 provides congressional oversight of the IRS restructure through a new entity, the Internal Revenue Service Oversight Board.
Accountability to Congress and the President of the United States is done through a new Board of Directors, a Commissioner of Internal Revenue appointed to a few year term, and a National Tax Payer Advocate (Independent from the IRS examination, collections, and appeals functions). The National Tax Payer Advocate eliminates the Chief Inspector and creates a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration and reports directly to the Secretary of Treasury.
Tax Reform means better use of technology. The 1998 Tax Reform mandated that the IRS must address training, operations, technology culture, and tax payer education. The IRS was to develop a strategic marketing plan for a paperless filing service. Technology can reduce costs by increasing more self-service by the Tax payer. Convenience and accessibility will appeal to the taxpayer. Technology is a fix cost appropriation and should be measured to improve tax payer satisfaction. Convenient access to information is crucial to the taxpayer.
The Tax Reform does not mean less tax litigation. The reform act claims to shift burden of proof from the taxpayer to the agency. The taxpayer must expense for legal services to fight against injustices. If the tax court rules that the tax payer acted reasonably, tax payers may claim civil damages up to $1 million for the recklessness or intentional wrong doing of the IRS agency. The burden of proof is not decisively shifted from the tax payer to the agency. The taxpayer must still demonstrate and prove recklessness. The agency could argue it was following approved procedures. A federal court would be force to rule on the policies fairiness. The litigation cost would be enormous.
The reform act of 1998 allows the tax payer the right to recover $100,000 for employee negligence, and increases the amount the IRS reimburses taxpayers who prevail in court.
The IRS is required to notify a taxpayer within five days that a lien has been filed against his or her property. The taxpayer has 30 days to request a hearing with an agency appeals officer.
The agency cannot proceed with seizure activity until after the hearing has been held, and a taxpayer who does not like the outcome may take the case to tax court. Tax Reform could mean more tax cases being litigated in tax court.
No seizure of a dwelling that is the principle residence of the taxpayer is allowed without prior judicial approval.
Cancer of Corruption in a Mountain of Malfeasance.......2003-09-01
Roth's book reveals much about the world's most feared, most hated, most powerful, and most corrupt criminal organization. While some of the material is dated, the underlying problems are still with us.
The book, due to its date of publication, doesn't reveal, for example, the OMB finding that IRS employees stole over 4300 government computers in 2001 nor does it reveal the results of a 2003 investigation that shows when they aren't busy stealing computers, IRS employees are spending over half their Internet time at the office visiting porn and gambling sites. Because of the date of the research, Roth doesn't include references to many news articles about how IRS employees devote themselves to terrorizing American citizens, selling confidential information, breaking laws with impunity, and running scams like the famous Hoyt Fiasco (well-documented online).
Yet, the book is very useful and important. In it, Roth reveals how individual managers in the IRS are completely unaccountable to any civil authority. He gives case after case of horrendous abuses.
Roth also reveals the steps taken to reign in some of the abuse, and he explains some things ordinary citizens can do to protect themselves. But he also leaves us with an awareness that the IRS is still too powerful, too unaccountable, and too corrupt.
The book should be required reading. An update is long overdue.
Unbridled Imagination.......2002-05-27
As a later GAO investigation revealed, Senator Roth's 1997 hearings on the IRS were a farce. The witnesses' stories of abuse were exaggerated at best, falsified with the connivance of the Senator and his commitee staff, at worst. His book, ghost written by a staffer, (I didn't know the Senator was literate!) should be listed here under "fiction." Its all bull - pandering to marginal and disaffected losers who wear aluminum foil inside their hats. Thankfully, the good citizens of Delware voted the rascal out in 1999, sending him and his horrible toupee back to the obscurity to which he so deservedly belongs.
Horrifying Problem - Worse Prognosis.......2001-08-23
I read this book as an ancillary to my study of government abuses that primarily focused on the abuses of the Department of Justice. What I found out was that the FBI, ATF and other heavily armed law enforcement agencies that violate our rights from time to time are relative wimps compared to the pervasive and unbelievably egregious wrongs committed by the IRS.
The author of the book is a US Senator that headed a congressional oversight hearing looking into the problems in the IRS from '96 to `99. What he found will make you mad as hell and twice as frustrated. Basically he found out that the IRS has become a law unto itself that has grown into a mean-spirited 800 lb. gorilla that cannot now be controlled under the present form of the law.
Roth admits that this mess is the fault of the Congress in its shameful lack of oversight. He notes that basically Congress has given the IRS increasingly sweeping powers without accountability to the point now that they can break the law with impunity.
The book cites many horrifying anecdotes of IRS abuse of citizens' rights and basic human decency all in the name of "making the numbers". The IRS is nothing more than a legalized gang of shakedown artists who use intimidation, fear and nasty mean-spiritedness to squeeze every penny out of the taxpayer that they see as an enemy that must be brought to its knees.
What I found worse than the realization that the government is basically a criminal organization and that the representatives have allowed it to go on was the fact that they now have limited ability to control or reform the IRS. Like a Frankenstein monster that has broken loose and cannot be controlled, the IRS is now so well equipped with sweeping powers that the courts, Congress and certainly we are helpless to its whim despite so called sweeping IRS reform bills passed by Congress in the last four years.
So, in effect, the author shows us what a mess he and his political cohorts have made over the last fifty or so years and then admits that there isn't a heck of a lot that can be done other than limit your profile so the IRS doesn't notice you in the first place. He also talks about your "rights" and how you should act politely and professionally while the IRS is sticking it in and breaking it off even though the preceding 2/3rd of the book were about how the IRS basically ignores taxpayers' rights. While practical in a clinical sense this advice bothered me because it reminded me of the advice you'll get from cops sometimes regarding crime in general: "just give them what they want and they might not hurt you".
Come on! Why the hell aren't these thugs in jail? How can a US Senate committee sit there and hear this kind of testimony, see the figures and get admissions from the IRS itself that this kind of crud is going on and not start slapping on the cuffs? I was really disgusted by this book and it basically sums up what I feel is wrong with our government in general. Forget about "jack-booted thugs" with machine guns kicking down your door in the middle of the night; worry about some bureaucratic piss ant from the IRS with a calculator deciding that you are an easy mark to make his numbers for the month.
Man, what a mess!
Much painful truth in a book with title off target.......2001-06-29
A friend just faxed me the review by Robert Cole III Three Cheers for Robert. As valuable as this book is to read, its title prompts me to state this book has the power to mislead. Robert hits the nail on the head. The Federal Crime Family (IRS) does not legally have the power implied by the title of this book. What logic would there be to giving power to an agency to administer their collection tasks under a law based on self assessment and voluntary compliance? The author paid the price of not getting re-elected after five consecutive terms in the Senate.
Book Description
American: Who Really Pays the Taxes? is a disturbing, eye-opening look at a tax system gone out of control. Originally designed to spread the cost of government fairly, our tax code has turned into a gold mine of loopholes and giveaways manipulated by the influential and wealthy for their own benefit.
If you feel as if the tax laws are rigged against the average taxpayer, you're right:
-- Middle-income taxpayers pick up a growing share of the nation's tax bill, while our most profitable corporations pay little or nothing.
-- Your tax status is effected more by how many lawyers and lobbyists you can afford than by your resources or needs.
-- Our best-known and most successful companies pay more taxes to foreign governments than to our own.
-- Cities and states start bidding wars to attract business through tax breaks -- taxes made up for by the American taxpayer.
Who really pays the taxes? Barlett and Stelle, authors of the best-selling america: What Went Wrong?, offer a graphic expose of what's wrong with our tax system, how it got that way, and how to fix it.
Customer Reviews:
Missing the Big Picture.......2007-01-22
I find the author's primary thesis of "rich individuals and corporations shirking their rightful burden of taxes" to be undermined by the simple fact that those very same rich shoulder an enormous share of the financial burden of taxation. The top 1% of wage earners pay over a third of all federal income taxes, and the top 10% pay almost two thirds. I'm a university professor earning about $40K a year, and it seems pretty obvious to me that the wealthy are supporting the lower earners in this country when it comes to their fair share of the federal budget. Does a wealthy person use the army or highways more than I do? Than why should they pay so much more? I understand the attempts of the wealthy (like anyone) to reduce their taxes, and since the wealthy are still shouldering so much of the burden of taxation, I have to assume that their attempts are not quite as successful as the author would have us believe. It seems to me that this book, while well written, is focused too much on the small "tax dodges" and not enough on the big picture, which is that the wealthy are already shouldering more than their fair share of the country's budget.
Interesting, but suspect.......2004-04-08
I'm going to prelude this by saying I haven't completed reading this book yet, but want to express my opinion on what I have read so far. While the information contained is rather interesting and eye-opening, I have to take much of what is said with a grain of salt. The primary reason is that I have come accross several basic math errors in the author's conclusions (the difference between a 19.8% rate and 18.1% rate is NOT 9%). It's also rather dry reading (though I somewhat expected that, considering the topic) and repetitive (did the author really need to provide the exact quotes of 15 different people all saying (effectively) the same thing to make his point?).
More Like Who Does Not Pay Taxes.......2003-02-10
I had a concern coming into this book that is was going to be pages of dull tax code jargon that kill any reading joy I might find in a book that bashes politicians. Luckily the authorýs wrote the book for the average Joe and left out the tax code. The basic premise of he book is that there is a special set of rules that the rich have had written into the tax code so that they do not pay the stated rates on the progressive tax system in the USA. This should not surprise most of us as it is the rich and corporations that spend the money with the politicians to get them elected, thus the back scratching has its fingers in the tax code. Now days it is hard to bring this charge up without all the ýClass Warfareý bias charges being tossed at you and this book is probably no exception. To me the authors did not seam to really be that bias, just real mad.
As an average Joe many parts of the book did make me a bit mad, just on the basic fairness point of view. They are good tidbits to have handy next time you are in a discussion with a person that pulls out the ýrich already pay most of the taxesý lines. With that said I did feel that the authors might have been reaching on some of thier complaints about corporations. Like most things it is a matter of degrees and in some parts I thought they went one or two steps over the line. My biggest complaint of the book was the number of person quote examples they used. It was nice to see two or three comments from some Senators on this or that tax bill, but the authors always seemed to use 10 ý 15. It was too much, we all know the politicians all read from the same talking points memos so to spell it out in a book using examples was overkill. Overall the book was interesting but not earth shattering.
Left winged or right winged this book is well researched.......2002-01-23
America, Who Stole the Dream, was a WONDERFUL READ. I find myself leaning more to the right, from a political perspective, but the authors arguments are EXCELLENT at times and they definitely bring up some great points.
This book is the most well argued book I have read about the current demise of the middle class in the U.S. After reading it I would definitely have to say that I have more concern about political decisions being made in Washington as the authors illustrate that consistently the politicians don't do the right thing for the country.
The authors bring up several concerns
1. Middle class demise via outsourcing of manufacturing to lower cost areas
2. Growing disparity of wealth (the rich own more in % terms)
3. The outsourcing of the `HIGH TECH JOBS' that are to be the savior of the country.
4. Commentary about various social programs set up and how ineffective they are.
In conclusion I would say this book was extremely well researched and I therefore give KUDOS to the authors. While I don't agree with everything they wrote I believe they have put forth an excellent piece of work.
My main contention with the book is that it focuses on the demise of manufacturing and low-end jobs, along with some high tech. The U.S. is expensive from a labor perspective. As we have outsourced much of our manufacturing we have been able to purchase products at cheaper prices in the U.S.. Imagine what some products would cost if we were paying for labor that was, in some cases, 10x higher than current wages in developing countries? NOWHERE in the book do the authors mention the BENEFIT to our standard of living because we can buy more with our dollars than we would be able to do so otherwise. In general, this book is WAY to the left so reader beware.
My background is a B.S. in Acct., an MBA in finance and current interests in economic and social policy development so I found this to be quite an interesting read.
It's class warfare. In reverse........2001-05-26
If you are like me you might have wondered why the "tax relief" of the last twenty years never seemed to really show up in your paycheck. You might have wondered why it felt like more and more of your income seemed to go to pay sales taxes and property taxes and income taxes and fees. If you wondered about that then you are likely somewhere in the middle class or even poor. If you wondered why it seemed that way, it's because it really is that way. See, as the top marginal rates for the well to do and the rates of tax on corporations has been reduced over and over, the Federal distributions to the states and municipal governments have been cut over and over. Unfortunantly for the great unwashed masses of the middle class, the state and local governments can't just close shop and stop providing essential services so they did what they had to do. They raised state and local sales, income and property taxes in a regressive manner to make up the shortfall. But wait! There's more!
In the 80's, as the budget deficits soared beyond anyone's worst nightmare, something had to be done to mask the true size of the monster. The result? A spike in the "payroll taxes" used to pay for Social Security and Medicare! While technically "off budget" and held in trust, the shell game used these receipts to disguise the growing deficits by lumping them in with other tax revenue. Oh yeah...the wealthy don't pay this tax on the vast majority of their income.
Barlett and Steele do a very passable job of explaining the shell game that has been used to lead Americans down the primrose path while transferring an ever greater share of our nations wealth to the very few at the expense of the rest of us. Now, as we repeat the major blunders of the Reagan eras transfer of wealth to the well to do with the fiscally irresponsible Bush tax cut (if you think that there is really a surplus to pay for this thing you are in for a rude awakening), this book is a very timely read. I can't recommend it highly enough. Get a copy and find out why almost all of what you thought you knew and almost all of what our political leaders are telling you is simply wrong.
America now has the largest gap between rich and poor in the entire industrialized world. Tax policy is at least partly to blame and has accelerated the growth of that gap such that it has more than doubled in the last twenty years. Do yourself a favor by finding a copy of this book to find out why. It's much worse than I can tell you here in the words allowed to me. I think most people instinctively know the truth but they are in denial. It's ugly and it's time to face it.
Book Description
When Charles O. Rossotti became Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service in 1997, the agency had the largest customer base—and the lowest approval rating—of any institution in America. Mired in scandal, caught in a political maelstrom, and beset by profound management and technology problems, the IRS was widely dismissed as a hopelessly flawed enterprise. In Many Unhappy Returns, Rossotti—the first businessperson to head the IRS—recounts the remarkable story of his leadership and transformation of this much-maligned agency. In the glare of intense public scrutiny, he effected dramatic changes in the way the IRS did business—while it continued to collect $2 trillion in revenue. Through fascinating accounts of heated Congressional hearings, encounters with Washington bigwigs, frank exchanges with taxpayers and employees, and risky turnaround strategies, Rossotti serves up a colorful story of leadership and change against daunting odds. He also underscores why every honest taxpayer should demand reform in the broader U.S. tax system. Infused with keen wit and hard-won business wisdom, Many Unhappy Returns illuminates the perils and possibilities of leading large, complex organizations in a transparent world.
Customer Reviews:
Reforming Government is Hopeless!.......2005-12-29
Rossotti tried it as head of the IRS from 1997 to 2002, coming from outside government and without prior significant tax experience. At the time, it had the largest number of customers and lowest approval rating of any institution in America. Behind this rating was a new $4 billion computer system that could not meet requirements, callers couldn't get through, staff could not resolve many issues without added calls and letters, there were high error rates in response to caller questions, and numerous charges of staff building "success rates" by deliberately focusing on taxpayers thought least able to resist.
One of Rossotti's early acts was to have a list compiled of outstanding promises - it exceeded 5,000. He consolidated the list and focused on 157 - giving them top attention. In addition, Y2K was coming - threatening chaos unless thousands of old programs were changed before the old programmers familiar with them and increasingly uncertain about their own future left. (Resolved that problem with a temporary 10% bonus and the promise of re-training in new languages.)
The "bad news," however, is that Congressionally-imposed complexity had led to an 83,000-page manual, a prohibition on quotas, and a requirement for performance statistics. Further, MAJOR improvement would require not only simplifying the tax code but also the organizational structure. For example, the Office of Management and Budget had great control over staffing, and Treasury department attorneys determined the legal rulings used by staff - often with little concern over practicality.
Rossotti focused on having staff stop seeing taxpayers as "the enemy," moved to organize those responding to taxpayer questions by topic and providing more training. Their efforts did improve customer satisfaction ratings, but he did not provide data on what happened after leaving. (My experience in government is that after the crisis passes or the change agent leaves, things revert back to the way they were.)
Probably most helpful, though was Rossotti's suggestion for Congressional focus - that the definitions and requirements regarding dependents (different in various situations) and tax-treatment of savings accounts added the most complexity to most taxpayers situations. Therefore, revising those areas would have significant benefit in simplifying taxpaying for many, many taxpayers.
It's not just the IRS.......2005-06-15
This is a truly remarkable book. Clearly written, with many practical examples and devoid of management jargon, it describes what Charles Rossotti did to signbificantly improve IRS operations. But it's not just about the IRS, or about big, cumbersome government buraeucracies, or about how to change organizations. It's about good management! The principles that guided Rossotti and that he lays out out in this book are universal, such as focus on the customer (that's right, taxpayers treated as customers)and involvement of employees in the improvement process. Those apply to any organization at any time and make this book an extraordinary valuable read for anyone genuinely interested in good management. I highly recommend it.
Government at its best.......2005-05-07
All those interested in how the best modern management practices of the private sector can be applied to huge government bureaucracies with dramatic benefits to the taxpayer (literally) should read Charles Rossotti's book. This book should remove all doubt about whether it's possible to improve the operational performance of government. The fundamentals are all that's needed: getting one's arms around the whole problem, structural reorganization, customer focus, gathering input from all directions, using modern information technology, leveraging the frustrated talent already in the organization, constant and honest communication, and the right chief executive. Rossotti was the right executive for the IRS, and fortunately he has written a clear and lively narrative of his experiences there.
Some Happy Returns Too.......2005-03-28
This is a modest and engaging memoir from a successful businessman who, to the surprise of his own family, accepted an offer to become Commissioner of the IRS. He took the job in 1997, when the IRS was in a political firestorm, being berated as both abusive and bungling in dramatic Congressional hearings. Charles Rossotti took over this very troubled agency, and after five years of hard work, left it, well, still a troubled agency, but with somewhat more manageable problems than it had before.
The list of problems he faced was truly daunting. The IRS was an outdated organization based on geography instead of function; its computer system for taxpayer accounts was from 1962; its customer service lines were chronically busy; and its workforce was demoralized. On his first day in office, Rossotti told his staff he wanted to send an e-mail to all employees and was promptly told it was impossible. Where to begin?
He began with the organization, removing layers of management and consolidating functions so that offices could focus on particular types of taxpayers. Rossotti was allowed to bring in his own management team, but to his relief, found that the career IRS executives he inherited were eager and able to make big changes in the agency. He accompanied IRS employees during their meetings with taxpayers so that he could watch them work. He replaced the big paper manuals that telephone assistors used with computer databases, and devised a plan to keep the old computer system updated for Y2K and tax law changes until a new system could be designed and deployed. All these changes were made after consulting with everyone from the employees' union to small business groups; Rossotti's motto is, "Engage, and then decide."
As the dour title of the book would suggest, not everything went well. Most of Rossotti's plan for "Modernizing America's Tax Agency" had only long-term benefits, but the politicians who make the rules and set the budget wanted a sense of immediate accomplishment. Congress demanded that he respond to the hearings by firing some employees. The White House hoped that a few public relations gestures could just make the problem go away. In one of book's few insider revelations, Rossotti claims that Clinton aides actually asked him to find a "happy taxpayer" for the audience of a State of the Union speech. Rossotti's budget requests were routinely cut, so he reduced enforcement to pay for the improvements he wanted in customer service. Not surprisingly, tax evaders, often assisted by prestigious accounting firms, took full advantage of the decline in audits.
So what is Charles Rossotti's legacy? The organizational and technological changes he was able to make will have lasting benefits. The IRS has caught up with such basics as fax and e-mail, and the irs.gov website is excellent. Rossotti's positive assessment of the employees he met is encouraging. His major emphasis on customer service may be threatened though. Rossotti's successor, alarmed at the level of cheating but no more successful with the overall budget, is now cutting customer service to shore up enforcement. Congress ignored Rossotti's requests to simplify the tax code, and in fact made things worse. Rossotti certainly wasn't the first businessman to go into government and find frustration, but with his modesty and his emphasis on consultation, he seemed much more poised for success than an autocratic type.
Many Unhappy Returns is neither bitter nor self-congratulatory. Rossotti doesn't criticize many people by name, and he is quick to share credit for what went right. His analysis of organizational structures certainly won't outsell books on terrorism or celebrity trials, but he does seem to be a very honest and capable man who took on a difficult job with no prospect of fame or glory. Reading his book is a small way of saying thanks. He didn't completely succeed, but thank God people like him are willing to try.
Someone had to do it.......2005-02-25
Just when you think that your own job is the pits, you encounter someone whose occupation is even worse. Actually, Rosetti volunteered - sort of, if you can call succumbing to pressure from several Washington heavies 'volunteering' - to fix something that appeared terminally broken: the IRS. But the result is a book that has more to do with transformational change in large organisations than taxation, and Rosetti is clear about the steps that were involved in bringing the IRS back from the brink to being a fairly credible organization (although he admits the process will take much longer than the five years that he held the job).
As a former businessman from the private sector, before taking the job he insisted on being able to form his own team - and he managed to assemble some good people from the private sector and from within the IRS. He also highlights the importance of keeping reform promises credible - better, he says, to only promise realistic changes, rather than promise the world and deliver nothing. Another key was the installation of up-to-date technology - astonishing to realise that the IRS was still running on a computer system from 1963.
The major problem was the micro-mandates imposed on him by various Congressmen and other stakeholders, as well as the apparently random interventions of the Clinton White House.
As a non-American, I cannot personally vouch for Rosetti's claims about the IRS lifting its game, although it sounds right from other things I have read and heard. One way or another, it makes for a pretty interesting book, and Rosetti writes with clarity and occasional humor (an ability to see the funny side of things would have been essential in this job).
I think I will send my (advance) copy to the head of the tax office in my own country.
Amazon.com
Imagine if Brad Meltzer or John Grisham's first book had been a memoir about working for the Internal Revenue Service and you have an idea of just how thrilling Richard Yancey's Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS really is. Serving as a revenue agent--or, more informally, a tax collector--of the IRS for two years, Yancey went through strange transformations--from a tall, pencil-thin theater major, in an unforgiving relationship with no steady income, to a mean, muscle-wielding, unyielding revenue officer at the top of his game. What happens in between this tax collecting, money-hungry metamorphosis makes this memorable memoir the stuff of great fiction.
The Americans who shirk tax laws and responsibilities are inevitably tracked, coded, analyzed, pursued, and in general, marked for tax collection by a legion of government workers take center stage. "We have superior intelligence; we know more about our enemies' lives than they know about themselves. We know where they are. We know what they do. We know what they have. We will execute what they fear," Yancey writes. Just envision the line-up of misfits and average joes who populate the screen on Cops or America's Funniest Home Videos and you'll be close to imagining the range of people Yancey tangles with. Vengeful middle managers, hard-working small business owners, mean-spirited tax protestors, hardened tax evaders--the list of characters goes on and on. Every one of the people tracked within the walls of Yancey's local IRS office has the same, pitiful problem: the tax man cometh and the "beast needs to be fed." Equal parts love story, business tale, high-speed chase, and self-evolution, Yancey's Confessions of a Tax Collector packs plenty of human drama--all of it experienced and survived by one man. --E. Brooke Gilbert
Book Description
Twelve years ago, Richard Yancey answered a blind ad in the newspaper offering a salary higher than what he'd made over the three previous years combined. It turned out that the job was for the Internal Revenue Service -- the most hated and feared organization in the federal government.
So Yancey became the man who got in his car, drove to your house, knocked on your door, and made you pay. Never mind that his car was littered with candy wrappers, his palms were sweaty, and he couldn't remember where he stashed his own tax records. He was there on the authority of the United States government.
With "a rich mix of humor, horror, and angst [and] better than most novels on the bestseller lists" (
Boston Sunday Globe),
Confessions of a Tax Collector contains an astonishing cast of too-strange-for-fiction characters. But the most intriguing character of all is Yancey himself who -- in detailing how the job changed him and how he managed to pull himself back from the brink of moral, ethical, and spiritual bankruptcy -- reveals what really lies beneath those dark suits and mirrored sunglasses.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
Customer Reviews:
GREAT!!! Retired IRS worker.......2007-06-21
I love the book about IRS that I worked for IRS 20 years from clerk/typist to tax examiner clerk (12/14/1981 to 01/11/2002). The book are funny stories about IRS that I was a sense of humor IRS employee for 20 years to make my co-workers laugh when I said funny things to the co-workers.
Written by a Tax Collector, Exciting as a Tax Collector.......2007-06-17
I picked up this book and really wanted to enjoy it. I slogged through half the book and just can't finish it. A topic matter with great promise, written by an ex-tax collector who fails to write in any compelling way. The writing, to the contrary, seems very childish; as if it would be a reading selection on an elementary school reading list - the book that every kid hated. Overall, it's saturated with a littany of unimportant details, and as a result, the book never gets going.
As to the reviewer that states it reads like a daily log - I couldn't agree more. The sense of time is totally lost. It just seems like a muddle of random days all thrown together with hardly any real beginning or end. There seems to be no real purpose to the book. This is like buying employment inside the IRS. You get all the boredom without the pay.
Not recommended
ugh, .......2007-03-02
This book reads like a daily log. I cannot think of one reason to recommend it.
A very interesting look at one of America's most hated instiutions.......2006-12-18
Although the information in this book is a bit dated as this branch of the IRS is no longer in use this book was an interesting read. It covers one of the most hated branches of the US government and one of the most hated parts of that branch. The need to feed the beast is well illustrated and how one can get sucked into that world is easily seen. Very interesting and scary look at what happens to those in power of our tax system.
This book is awesome!.......2006-11-23
I read this book in one sitting it is that good. This book is set in earlier IRS days (1980s / 1990s if I rememeber correctly) so don't think it's very recent; although, who knows... the same kind of stuff might still go on.
Product Description
2006 Professional publication for those advising taxpayers with special needs, i.e., Corporate executives, professional persons, farmers, salesperson, U. S. Citizens abroad, day-care center operators, clergy, and students.
Customer Reviews:
How To Do Business With The IRS.......2000-09-04
This is an excellent book. I have been in practice for over 20 years and have studied it and used it as a reference for most of that time. My copy was destroyed in a fire and I am disappointed it is currently unavailable.
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