The Internal Revenue Service is calling it “the National Research Program on employment tax compliance.” What it amounts to is a far-reaching audit program to dig up business-tax revenues.
Here are the two main areas that are going under the IRS spotlight:
- Improper worker classification. The agency is mainly concerned with workers classified as independent contractors because the classification affects the revenue state governments receive to pay for unemployment benefits.
- So-called nonconforming benefits. Those are benefits that could be considered wages subject to employment taxes. The typical targets: personal use of company vehicles, employee discounts, employer-provided housing and meals, accident and health benefits, educational assistance and stock-based compensation. Reimbursed expenses, in order to be tax-free and deductible, must generally be reasonable, have a business connection, include reasonable accounting for the expenses, and all excess reimbursement should be repaid within a reasonable time.
IRS has announced that it will be looking at mainly tax records for 2007 and 2008, but that doesn’t mean other years are exempt from examination. The announcement about the program was first made by the agency’s Anita Bartels at the Annual Congress of the American Payroll Association.
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Tags: benefits, independent contractor, IRS, National Research Program, tax
November 19th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
The IRS is the grand theft department of the U.S. Government. Since the Obama administration is digging this country’s debt hole deeper and deeper, it’s up to the IRS to come up with money.
Expect more and more intrusive, invasive and draconian behavior from this reprehensible branch of government in the months and years to come.
November 19th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
The IRS is also scheduled to be the healthcare police to enforce the mandatory purchase of Obamacare.
Change you can believe in – indeed.
November 19th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
I am so sick and tired of the sort of posts that heavenlycreature and LEU have placed here. Come on folks, how about some rational thought instead of just mouthing the unsubstantiated rants emanating from the fiction that Fox News broadcasts. What could possibly be wrong with the IRS enforcing the law and nailing tax cheating businesses? Then again, perhaps you think white collar crime is okay.
Sadly all too many businesses make it their business to mislead their customers and cheat on paying their fair share of taxes. Two of any government’s key roles is to cure these abuses of the privileges of our capitalist system and to cure the tax cheats who are not only cheating the government, but also cheating all the honest people and businesses that don’t cheat.
November 20th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Welfare cheats = prosecution!
Tax cheats = ???
I don’t get it… Do we want a fair and just society, or not? I am sick of corporate welfare and corporate welfare through the back door (tax cheating). It is time that a modicum of scrutiny is applied to business, to ensure that they are paying their fair share.
November 20th, 2009 at 9:45 am
To Dan L……Perhaps your so tired of it because you’ve never run a small business or gone through an IRS audit!
And furthermore, if O’bongo wants to catch tax cheats, alll he has to do is look around him! My God he couldn’t find a dumocrat that paid taxes and wasted weeks trying to fill positions because of it!!..He appointed four crooks in a row and every one of them was a tax cheat!
I can tell you work for the gov’t and have never had to run a company in your life! nor will you ever!
November 20th, 2009 at 9:59 am
Dan – for what it’s worth – I don’t watch Fox (or any other news). You talk about tax cheats? What about the biggest one of all – Geithner – who admitted to it and is still running the department which collects taxes.
And if you are “sick and tired of the sort of posts” here – go read your Media Matters of Daily Kos and stay away. You wouldn’t know a business related fact if it hit you right between your rose-colored liberal glasses.
How’s that hope and change thing working for you?
November 20th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Kendall and LEU — I rest my case. I’ve been running my own successful small business for 30 years. Prior to that I worked in state and local government as a city planner — so I actually have some idea of how difficult it is for government to function.
The nasty and just plain ignorant nature of your posts simply proves my points. You make assumptions for which there is no support in fact. You assume that I supported the appointment of Tim Geithner — I don’t and never will — and that I’m a liberal — I’m a political moderate who is disappointed that the radical right has taken over the Republican Party leaving moderates no choice but to vote for Democrats in most elections.
You two illustrate the low level of political discourse — name calling and stereotyping — that the radical right has foisted on this nation. Unfortunately some on the left have joined your chorus. Hopefully the vast majority of Americans who are sick and tired of the way your minions have made a mockery of rational discourse will have the courage to call you on it. To sit back and do nothing would be a shame.
November 20th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
We live in a time of highly emotional issues on all sides. I am not surprised at the language used here as it would indicate the depth of concern on all sides. I will say though that I have heard for years the liberal spin and it ain’t very nice. In my opinion the right spin is undergoing change while the left spin is becoming louder and ever more nasty toward those who disagree.
My comment on the IRS is that one year its hot button issues are different from the previous and/or next year. Of course Washington has a lot to do with that. Great if it does its job but consistency and even handedness in the interpretation of the law would be nice.
November 20th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Dan,
It’s YOU and your ultra-patriotic, tax-loving brethren who make US sick!
Our Government is abusive and wasteful. And we all are made to fear and cower before the IRS.
I’m ashamed of you and your government-suckling ilk.
Go write a check.
November 20th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
One quite obvious answer to all the laxness in the tax collection is collecting it up front with a use tax. Then we would not need the IRS and it’s expensive buruacracy.
Terry
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:20 am
From the language I’m hearing, I am sure I am out of my league, however, I feel I must comment. 1st, “Heavenlycreature,” in most cultures one’s name says a lot about who one is. Your name does not match your dialogue; 2nd, we may not all be business owners, or work for government like Dan (Dan, I’m a fan) but we all know, and have known for decades that our government has been abusive and wasteful. To blame it on one administration (Obama) is cretainly not fair. The IRS is going after improper, and noncomforming practices of businesses. If businesses are conforming and operating properly, why fear. If there were not administrations like OSHA, and IRS we would be a people left to our own vises. What kind of country would we be???
November 24th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
AMEN! Obama didn’t start this, it started long ago. Com’on folks, it’s not all candy, sometimes it’s got to be soup!
November 24th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Have any of those who complain about our government ever been to other countries? People from every continent come here because of how fair and well-ordered our society is. And we pay less in taxes than other developed countries. People accept taking off their shoes in airports because it seems to make us safer. So do taxes. Look at the countries where the president-for-life is the richest person in the country. The attitude in those places is that if someone is making money, then the government is not stealing enough. Or where oligarchs assasinate their competitors and are protected by the state. Like somebody said, democracy is a very bad form of government, but the alternatives are much worse.
November 25th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
How about the government audit and clean up all of the abuses in Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, welfare, etc. FIRST, and then start these audits of private sector businesses?! That would make a lot more sense!!!
November 30th, 2009 at 6:24 am
There is far more money in controlling business avoidance of taxes than there ever will be in stamping out welfare fraud, and I am delighted at any initiative to ensure that corporations pay their fair share.
December 7th, 2009 at 6:01 am
[...] previously reported, the Internal Revenue Service was gearing up for the audits to uncover unpaid business and payroll [...]