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Senate Small Business Committee's Announcement of Internet Poll on Forms

MAY 26, 1999

Senate Small Business Committee's Announcement of Internet Poll on Forms

DATED MAY 26, 1999
DOCUMENT ATTRIBUTES
  • Authors
    Bond, Sen. Christopher S.
  • Institutional Authors
    Senate
    Small Business Committee
  • Subject Area/Tax Topics
  • Index Terms
    IRS forms
    tax administration
    small business
    Senate Small Business Committee, Internet site
  • Jurisdictions
  • Language
    English
  • Tax Analysts Document Number
    Doc 1999-18753 (2 original pages)
  • Tax Analysts Electronic Citation
    1999 TNT 102-22

 

=============== FULL TEXT ===============

 

NEWS RELEASE FROM THE UNITED STATES SENATE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS

CHRISTOPHER S. "KIT" BOND, CHAIRMAN

May 26, 1999

[1] (Washington) -- Senator Christopher S. "Kit" Bond today unveiled a high-tech window through the Internet that will allow business owners to vote for the IRS form, schedule, instruction, letter or notice most in need of being rewritten and simplified among the 200 or more related to small business.

[2] Bond, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business, said the Committee's "IRS Paperwork Unpopularity Poll," went on line this morning and will be open for small businesses and the self- employed to cast their votes over the next year at the address: http://sbc.senate.gov. Identities of individuals completing the poll will be kept confidential but the results will be compiled and reported to IRS Commissioner Charles O. Rossotti as part of Bond's ongoing work with the Commissioner to simplify and reduce the tax filing burden on small business.

[3] "While no business will have to file them all, a startling universe of forms and schedules, including more than 8,000 lines, boxes, data requirements and 700 pages of instructions, await Americans attempting to comply with the law and make a living by running their own business," Bond said. "Even more startling is the fact that 76 percent of small business owners hired a tax professional to help them meet their tax obligations, according to the statistics available. Clearly, we must take steps now to simplify IRS paperwork for small-business taxpayers."

[4] The "IRS Paperwork Unpopularity Poll" is the first step in a common-sense review of IRS forms and paperwork that grew out of an April 12, 1999, hearing held by Bond to examine tax-filing and reporting burdens. During that hearing, Bond asked Rossotti to help taxpayers by reviewing the forms, schedules, instructions, publications, letters and notices confronting taxpayers on a daily basis.

[5] The Committee's Internet-based poll will get that process started by asking business owner to identify the worst offenders -- the forms, schedules, and instructions that are the most complex, the publications that are the most unclear, and the letters and notices that are the most difficult to understand.

[6] "My goal is to present Commissioner Rossotti periodically with a list of IRS forms, schedules, instructions, publications, letters, and notices most in need of common-sense review and revision," Bond said. "At least once a quarter, we will send the top five or ten worst offenders in each category to the IRS for revision, based on the Commissioner's commitment at the hearing."

[7] Bond called on all business owners to take advantage of the poll in order to provide Rossotti meaningful and practical feedback that can help simplify tax filing for small businesses, which typically cannot afford costly legal and accounting services that are used by their big-business counterparts.

[8] "There is much that the IRS and Congress need to do if we are going to reduce current tax-filing and record-keeping burdens and avoid the miscalculations that have produced the overwhelming red tape facing small business owners," Bond added.

DOCUMENT ATTRIBUTES
  • Authors
    Bond, Sen. Christopher S.
  • Institutional Authors
    Senate
    Small Business Committee
  • Subject Area/Tax Topics
  • Index Terms
    IRS forms
    tax administration
    small business
    Senate Small Business Committee, Internet site
  • Jurisdictions
  • Language
    English
  • Tax Analysts Document Number
    Doc 1999-18753 (2 original pages)
  • Tax Analysts Electronic Citation
    1999 TNT 102-22
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