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From: tbg@apollo.uucp (Tom Gross)
Newsgroups: net.taxes,net.invest
Subject: IRS has budget of $160 Million???
Message-ID: <2eacf085.2a75@apollo.uucp>
Date: Thu, 3-Jul-86 18:34:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: apollo.2eacf085.2a75
Posted: Thu Jul  3 18:34:52 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 5-Jul-86 07:04:37 EDT
Organization: Apollo Computer, Chelmsford, Mass.
Lines: 40
Xref: linus net.taxes:1138 net.invest:1650



>>     Looks like tax reform is cruising through the senate.  Great idea to
>>     lower the marginal tax rate, makes it seem really attractive to
>>     just about everybody, BUT aren't we OBVIOUSLY going to have to raise
>>     taxes sooner or later to pay for the deficit?  Aren't we really 
>>     looking at a top marginal rate of maybe 40% but with no capital
>>     gains exclusion, IRAs, interest deductions, and all the other nice
>>     little things that have made 42% or 50% easier to live with? 
>> 
>>     Tom Gross
>
>Actually, no.  One of the problems with the current tax system is that
>the cost of auditing all of those "personal deductions" even by computer
>is now so expensive, that even the IRS can't afford it.  The IRS, by the
>way, has the third largest budget after "entitlements" and Defence.

    It's taking me a while to decipher your comment, but what I THINK
    you are saying is that tax reform will be make tax collection so much 
    cheaper that it will eliminate the deficit!  Is this the sort of
    logic that people use when they vote for Ronald Reagan?  Why don't
    we just adopt a "free-market" tax collection system, and count on
    the honesty of the american people?  Think of how cheap it would
    be to collect everybody's money if it were completely voluntary!

    Unfortunately, the IRS does NOT have the 3rd largest chunk of the
    federal budget; the TREASURY DEPARTMENT DOES!  In their budget
    there are two items (according to my 1986 almanac, these figures
    are the latest available: 1984): the IRS has a budget of 
    $6 Million, the other "big ticket item" for the treasury department
    is something called "interest on the public debt" which for 
    1984 was about $154 Million.

    Here in Massachusetts the state government has found that it
    actually PAYS to go after delinquent taxes!  What a concept!


    Tom Gross
    Apollo Computer, Inc.   
    Chelmsford, MA