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Massachusetts' Big Brother Tech to Watch Taxpayers
rocketjam writes "The Boston Globe reports that the Massachusetts state Revenue Department has launched a new technology offensive which strives to piece together all the stray bits of financial information about individual taxpayers that is contained in various public databases in order to catch tax cheats. The databases have been around for years, but technology has only recently enabled the state to assemble and review the information in a time-efficient manner. The so-called 'Discovery' initiative is already bringing in an additional $1 million a week. While denying the state is playing 'Big Brother', the Revenue Department Commissioner, Alan LeBovidge predicted the state may eventually be able to track so much financial information on individuals that the state could complete the citizens' returns for them."
Anybody every notice that most big brother projects or legislation comes from New England first?
This is a test. This is a test of the emergency sig system. This has been only a test.
One thing to note here is that it would be very easy for the state to fill out tax paperwork for the taxpayer in MA. I'm an MA taxpayer, and I did my taxes recently with TurboTax. After completing the federal portion, there were very few questions the state software needed to ask me.
- Did I want to pay the voluntary 5.85% tax rate instead of the standard 5.3% tax rate? (No!)
- Did I have any use tax items to declare? (Nope, and if anybody asks further I plead the 5th.)
- Would I like some of my tax money to go to the state's Clean Elections Fund? (Sure, why not?)
Beyond those little things, TurboTax could complete my pages of state tax forms simply by porting over the values from the IRS forms that had already been completed. So, since the state can already look at my IRS forms anyway, why not have them compute my taxes for me, and automatically send me the already-completed paperwork attached to the bill or refund?
If you're able to track their large purchases? Very well, I think. You can identify who to look at more closely, as the article says. If you're making $500 a month car payments and $1,500 a month mortgage payments and are reporting $20,000 a year in income, something's probably up, and as stupid as state bureaucracies are, I don't think they'll have too much trouble figuring it out once enough information is in front of them.
The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'. --Dan Kaminsky
The Revenue Department has spent about $3 million over the last two years on the program, which has generated a total of $43 million in new tax revenue and $6 million in refunds. (Yes, the system identifies overpayers, too.)
are you saying that companies are leaving Mass? Why would they do that? I'm sure its got nothing to do with the orwellian taxes that "The Rich" are supposed to pay.
how fscking hard is this to understand - rich people that run companies give jobs to average joes... its not a gawddamned hard concept, people. I work for rich people, and i'm cool with that. if they weren't rich, they couldn't pay me.
btw: california staved off $56 BILLION in new taxes last year - only because of the Republican 2 state senators and 6 state house reps that comprise the delta between what's necessary to pass new taxes and to kill off new tax bills...
let me repeat that...
the Cali legislature tried to pass $56 BILLION in new taxes - in one year - and 8 people stopped them. Our state's budget last year was just under $100 BILLION. It would have been $156 BILLION if not for 8 people.
holy shit, batman.
with a proposition (56) to kill off the requirement for a 2/3 majority to raise new taxes, and the teachers' unions putting out ad after ad claiming 56 is "good for California" - we should be dead in the water by 2006, and the only guy making money will be the U-Haul guy that drives the empty trucks back from Nevada, Colorado and Texas.
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
Here's a timely story for those of you filling out your federal tax return for Uncle Sam this spring.
According to my tax preparer, one of the ways they decide whether to audit a particular return is to correlate the adjusted gross income against ZIP code. Generally, areas segregate into rich and poor neighborhoods.
Persons in poor ZIP codes who have unusually high incomes would be singled out (Mr Coke Dealer that wants to avoid Al Capone's downfall - income tax evasion) on the one hand.
Then, people in wealthy ZIP codes with no visible means of support (again, illicit gains and unreported income).
It all goes to show that intelligent data mining can make much better use of the information already available. No need for John Ashcroft to review my frequent shopper card purchases.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
There's 25 different ways to fill out your federal return, but the MA state taxes are based almost completely on the Federal tax laws with different percentage rates assigned. If your answers on the IRS forms and the MA DOR forms don't match, you're already setting yourself up for audits... so all the state would do is just port over the numbers you gave to the IRS and do the math.
"The Boston Globe reports that the Massachusetts state Revenue Department has launched a new technology offensive which strives to piece together all the stray bits of financial information about individual taxpayers that is contained in various public databases in order to catch tax cheats."
Which means that Massachusetts is leveraging federal law how exactly?
And why did he stop taking physical exams 3 years before the end of his service? He was supposed to take one every year to coincide with his birthday. Bush passed an exam May 15, 1971, but in the summer of 1972 he refused to take one, and lost his flying status because of it. In the summer of 1973 Bush was still serving in the Guard, but no records exists to prove he ever took a physical. In fact, there's no evidence that in the 42 months between May 1971 and the time he officially discharged on Nov. 21, 1974, Bush ever took an Air Force physical.
His failure to take the physical in 1972, and his subsequent loss of his flying status, should have triggered a disciplinary review, copies of which would be contained in Bush's military file. But none exists. Where are they?
And why, after the government spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach him how to fly, did he apply to be transferred to an Alabama postal unit?
What's that sound? That's the sound of AWOL.